"Ah." The Black Doctor closed his eyes wearily and flipped an activator switch. The scanner on the far wall buzzed into activity. It focussed on the rear storage hold of the _Mercy_ where the little _Lancet_ was resting on its landing rack. "Look closely, Doctor." At first Jenkins saw nothing. Then his eye caught a long, pink glistening strand lying across the floor of the hold. The scanner picked up the strand, followed it to the place where it emerged from a neat pencil-sized hole in the hull of the _Lancet_. The strand snaked completely across the room and disappeared through another neat hole in the wall into the next storage hold. Jenkins shook his head as the scanner flipped back to the hole in the _Lancet's_ hull. Even as he watched, the hole enlarged and a pink blob began to emerge. The blob kept coming and coming until it rested soggily on the edge of the hole. Then it teetered and fell _splat_ on the floor. "Friend of yours?" the Black Doctor asked casually. It was a pink heap of jelly just big enough to fill a scrub bucket. It sat on the floor, quivering noxiously. Then it sent out pseudopods in several directions, probing the metal floor. After a few moments it began oozing along the strand of itself that lay on the floor, and squeezed through the hole into the next hold. "Ugh," said Sam Jenkins, feeling suddenly sick. "The hydroponic tanks are in there," the Black Doctor said. "You've seen one of those before?" "Not in person." Jenkins shook his head weakly. "Only pictures. It's a _hlorg_. We thought it was only a Maukivi persecution fantasy." "This thing is growing pretty fast for a persecution fantasy. We spotted it eight hours ago, demolishing what was left of your food supply. It's twice as big now as it was then." "Well, we've got to get rid of it," said Jenkins, suddenly coming to life. "Amen, Doctor." "I'll get the survey crew alerted right away. We won't waste a minute. And my apologies." Jenkins was hurrying for the door. "I'll get it cleared out of here fast." "I do hope so," said the Black Doctor. "The thing makes me ill just to think about." "I'll give you a clean-ship report in twenty-four hours," the Red Doctor said as confidently as he could and beat a hasty retreat down the corridor. He was wishing fervently that he felt as confident as he sounded. The Maukivi had described the _hlorg_ in excruciating detail. He and Green Doctor Stone had listened, and smiled sadly at each other, day after day, marvelling at the fanciful delusion. _Hlorgs_, indeed! And such creatures to dream up--eating, growing, devouring plant, animal and mineral without discrimination-- And the Maukivi had stoutly maintained that this _hlorg_ of theirs was indestructible-- * * * * * Green Doctor Wally Stone, true to his surgical calling, was a man of action. "You mean there _is_ such a thing?" he exploded when his partner confronted him with the news. "For real? Not just somebody's pipe dream?"