This day, when Joe came in, Bairn looked at him with a strange twist to his mouth. He said nothing for quite a while, the two just sitting there, Joe looking up and ahead, Bairn, apparently preoccupied with figures on his charts. Finally Bairn said: "Has Arden said anything to you?" Joe shook his head. "No," he said. "Why?" Bairn, apparently speaking absentmindedly, said: "Arlie's wife, Mary, has the radio disease. She's in the first stage. Has the blue coloring. It means everything to Arlie that this ship gets to Venus and back. Venus has the only radio-active static compound that matches the stuff from the meteorite." "Yes," Joe said. "I know. It was only luck that scientist, Struthers, had that meteorite in the room with him when he had the disease. It cured him. And then scientists and astronomers searched star spectrums to find a match for the color scheme that they found in the meteorite metal." "This ship," Bairn put in, "cost billions; it meant the first real cooperative program the world's nations ever had. It would be ghastly if one man caused the destruction of Earth's last hope from doom. Wouldn't it, Joe?" Joe's face was grim as he nodded. "How would you feel if you were to blame for drowning out humanity, Joe?" Joe stood up, and his body was shaking. "Tell me, Joe," Bairn said quietly. "Why have you kept yourself from eating with the rest of the guys? Why is it when you come here you're always smelling of antiseptic?" There were tears in Joe's brown eyes when he faced Bairn. "Okay, John, what shall I do?" "There's not much harm done yet? Arlie says that in the first stages, it's only communicable by contact. But once it gets past that first stage, it goes hog wild. "Tell me, Joe, when did the nauseous attacks first come?" Joe's brown eyes were dead. "Two days before the ship left." "You were willing to sacrifice mankind just to see the stars yourself, Joe?" It was Arlie Arden who came in quietly, then. "No," said Joe, and then he looked at the two of them. "Believe me," he said, and his voice was deep, vibrant. "I was drawn to the ship by a power greater than any of us. I knew the terrible gamble. For if this ship crashes before it gets back to Earth with that Venus ore, it means the end of man. "I knew that. Everything my mind said pointed out the consequences. My mind said no in every possible way. But ... my mind had no chance against the impulse that drove me aboard ship. "Somehow I know that my presence on board this ship means the salvation of mankind...." He shook his head at Arden whose lips were pursed to speak. "It's not egotism or some crack-brained idea. I couldn't rest until I was aboard ship. I'm chosen to do something to preserve mankind, not destroy it. It's just as if something bigger than me or you or the universe had taken hold of me, placed me here." Arden said: "Do you know what we're going to do to you, Joe?"