"We'll leave all the records," said the captain, his thumb poised over the button on the arm of his chair. "That's enough." Halter ignored him. "Each of you can help. You've only done part of the work." He stood and struck the desk with the flat of his hand. "Damn it, say something, one of you!" Still the silence and the flickering looks all around. Halter heard a sob. He saw Dr. Anna Mueller's head drop forward and her shoulders tremble. The others were staring at her, as if she had suddenly materialized among them, like a ghost. [Illustration] Then her voice, through the trembling and the faint crying: "I've--I've got to know." The captain got creakily to his feet. "Dr. Mueller! Do you want me to use the gun again?" She raised her face to his. There was pain in it. "I've--got work to do. There's so--little time." "That's right. On this ship. You're part of the crew. There'll be plenty of work once we get out in space again." [Illustration] "I've got to see if my theory's right." "Colonel Halter," said the captain, "this is insubordination. Mutiny." * * * * * He raised the gun tremblingly, pointed the black muzzle at Dr. Mueller, sighted along the barrel. "Wait," said Halter. "You're right." Captain McClelland hesitated. "It's quite plain," went on Halter, "that Dr. Mueller is alone among you. She wants to come out and go on with her work. The rest of you want the closed-in uterine warmth and peace of this room you're existing in. You can't face the possibility of failure. So I'm afraid she'll have to be sacrificed. After all, you do need a full crew to move the ship--even if you are all dead a few seconds after blastoff." He paused, looking intently at Brady, Crowley, Carlyle, Gordon, where they sat in the half circle, staring back at him. "So--" Lieutenant Brady struggled up from his chair. "I've got twenty-five years of life. I've some ships to design." "That goes for me, too," said Crowley, the rocketman. "Will anybody want to read my novels?" Astrogator Carlyle leaned forward. "There are many more poems to be written." "Give me a soundproof laboratory," said Caroline Gordon. "I'll add another fifty years to all your lives." "I'm afraid it is mutiny, Captain," said Halter. The captain started toward his chair, his hand reaching for the button on its arm. Lieutenant Brady stumbled forward, blocking his way. Halter could only watch, thinking, _It's up to them. They've got to do it now!_ He saw the captain draw his shock gun; saw light flare at its muzzle; saw Lieutenant Brady crumple like a collapsing skeleton.