If they did it would hinder others, and the odds were nearly a thousand to one. Of course they might compromise, a short gravityless period at intervals. It would be unsatisfactory to everyone but it might give Anti the encouragement she needed. Besides, he was unsure they _could_ turn off the gravity without also turning off the drive. Their momentum would carry them along at the same speed they had been going--but was it wise to tamper with a mechanism that till now was functioning so smoothly and was so important? Jordan shook his head. "I said we'd think of something else and we will. Continue with this treatment and watch your weight go down." "Don't think I'm not aware of your cheerful intentions," said Anti. "How can you possibly weigh me as long as I have to stay in the tank?" "The same way Archimedes did--fluid displacement. I've rigged up a scale so you can keep track of what's happening." He didn't tell her what the scale was calibrated in. Absolute figures were disheartening. It was only the progress which counted. Anti looked at the dial near the edge of the tank. "I thought it was just another gadget." When Jordan didn't answer she looked for him. "Hey, don't leave me to freeze in this cold goop." "You're not cold and you know it. You can't feel a thing." "Don't be so frank," she grumbled. "Hardly anyone comes to talk to me. I like company." "Sure, but I've got to get busy on that other idea." He didn't have one but he looked very wise and it had the desired effect. "Guess I can't stop you," grumbled Anti. "Tell someone to come and visit with me." Again she looked long at the dial. It was a pleasant surprise to find she was not so far from average that she could be weighed. Jordan was a gadgeteer but sometimes his contraptions worked and once in a while his ventures in psychology were extraordinarily shrewd. For instance, the dial. She imagined she could feel her toes tingling from the cold--if she still had toes. Soon they would emerge from the fungus flesh in which they were buried. She felt she was shedding. What did they have that made anything seem possible? Jordan, the sometimes wonderful gadgeteer. Docchi, a competent engineer but no more than that. Unsure of himself personally he had a passion for correcting inequalities. And then there was Cameron, a good doctor who was trying to realign his principles. He wouldn't have made it except that he had a powerful attraction ahead of him. Lord knows what he saw in Nona or she in him. And lastly there was Nona herself, to whom big miracles came easier than small ones. There was a fragile grandeur about her but she knew nothing at all of the human body, especially her own. And this is what they relied on. It was strikingly little to balance against the forces of Earth, which had failed them. And yet it was enough; the accidentals would not fail.