"By Caroli, be quiet, all of you!" Iversen yelled. The very next voyage, he was going to have a new crew if he had to transfer to Colonization to do it! Even colonists couldn't be as obnoxious as the sons of space with which he was cursed. * * * * * It was only after the _Herringbone_ had left the Virago System entirely that Iversen discovered Harkaway had taken the greech along. "But you can't abscond with one of the natives' pets!" he protested, overlooking, for the sake of rhetoric, the undeniable fact that Harkaway had already done so and that there could be no turning back. It would expend too much precious fuel and leave them stranded for life on Virago XI^a. "Nonsense, sir!" Harkaway retorted. "Didn't the Flimflim say everything on Flimbot was mine? _Thlu'pt shig-nliv, snusnigg bnig-nliv_ were his very words. Anyhow, they have plenty more greechi. They won't miss this little one." "But he may have belonged to someone," Iversen objected. "An incident like this could start a war." "I don't see how he could have belonged to anyone. Followed me around most of the time I was there. We've become great pals, haven't we, little fellow?" He ruffled the greech's pink fur and the creature gave a delighted squeal. Iversen could already see that the greechik were going to be Flimbot's first lucrative export. From time immemorial, the people of Earth had been susceptible to cuddly little life-forms, which was why Earth had nearly been conquered by the zz^{iu} from Sirius VII, before they discovered them to be hostile and quite intelligent life-forms rather than a new species of tabby. "Couldn't bear to leave him," Harkaway went on as the greech draped itself around his shoulders and regarded Iversen with large round blue eyes. "The Flimflim won't mind, because I promised him an elephant." "You mean the diplomatic mission will have to waste valuable cargo space on an _elephant_!" Iversen sputtered. "And you should know, if anyone does, just how spacesick an elephant can get. By Pherkad, Lieutenant Harkaway, you had no authority to make any promises to the Flimflim!" "I discovered the Flimbotzik," Harkaway said sullenly. "_I_ learned the language. _I_ established rapport. Just because you happen to be the commander of this expedition doesn't mean you're God, Captain Iversen!" "Harkaway," the captain barked, "this smacks of downright mutiny! Go to your cabin forthwith and memorize six verses of the Spaceman's Credo!" The greech lifted its head and barked back at Iversen, again. "That's my brave little watch-greech," Harkaway said fondly. "As a matter of fact, sir," he told the captain, "that was just what I was proposing to do myself. Go to my cabin, I mean; I have no time to waste on inferior prose. I plan to spend the rest of the voyage, or such part as I can spare from my duties--" "You're relieved of them," Iversen said grimly.