No, not in seven thousand years. No woman deserved to have her life made into such a hell on earth as that would be--years of agony, of heartbreaking suspense, climaxed by untimely widowhood; or, at best, the wasting of the richest part of her life upon a husband who was half steel, rubber, and phenoline plastic. Red in particular was much too splendid a person to be let in for anything like that-- But hold on--jet back! What made him think that he rated any such girl? That there was even a possibility--especially in view of the way he had behaved while under her care in Base Hospital--that she would ever feel like being anything more to him than a strictly impersonal nurse? Probably not. He had Klono's own brazen gall to think that she would marry him, under any conditions, even if he made a full-power dive at her. Just the same, she might. Look at what women did fall in love with, sometimes. So he would never make any kind of a dive at her; no, not even a pass. She was too sweet, too fine, too vital a woman to be tied to any space-louse; she deserved happiness, not heartbreak. She deserved the best there was in life, not the worst; the whole love of a whole man for a whole lifetime, not the fractions which were all that he could offer any woman. As long as he could think a straight thought he wouldn't make any motions toward spoiling her life. In fact, he hadn't better see Reddy again. He wouldn't go near any planet she was on, and if he saw her out in space he'd go somewhere else at ten gravities. With a bitter imprecation Kinnison sprang out of his bunk, hurled his half-smoked cigarette at an ash tray, and strode toward the control room. * * * * * The ship he rode was of the Patrol's best. Superbly powered for flight, defense, and offense, she was withal a complete space-laboratory and observatory; and her personnel, over and above her regular crew, was as varied as her equipment. She carried ten Lensmen--a circumstance unique in the annals of space, even for such a trouble-shooting battle wagon as the _Dauntless_ was; a scientific staff which was practically a cross section of the Tree of Knowledge. She carried Lieutenant Peter van Buskirk and his company of Valerian wild cats; Worsel of Velantia and threescore of his reptilian kinsmen; Tregonsee, the blocky Rigellian Lensman, and a dozen or so of his fellows; Master Technician LaVerne Thorndyke and his crew. She carried three Master Pilots, Prime Base's best--Henderson, Schermerhorn, and Watson. The _Dauntless_ was an immense vessel. She had to be, in order to carry, in addition to the men and the things requisitioned by Kinnison, the personnel and the equipment which Port Admiral Haynes had insisted upon sending with him. "But great Klono, chief, think of what a hole you're making in Prime Base if we don't get back!" Kinnison had protested.