"But we can't! We mustn't!" He turned to Bordman. "We do them good, back home! There was panic. Our report about cable-grids has put heart in people. They're setting to work magnificently! So we're some use. They know we're worse off than they are, and as long as we hold on they'll be encouraged. We've got to keep going somehow!" Riki breathed deeply until her shivering stopped. Then she said: "Haven't you noticed, Ken, that Mr. Bordman has the view-point of his profession? His business is finding things wrong. He was deposited in our midst to detect defects in what we did and do. He has the habit of looking for the worst. But I think he can turn the habit to good use. He did turn up the idea of cable-grids." "Which," said Bordman, "turns out to be no good at all. They'd be some good if they weren't needed, really. But the conditions that make them necessary make them useless!" Riki shook her head. "They are useful!" she said. "They're keeping people at home from despairing. Now, though, you've got to think of something else. If you think of enough things, one will do good the way you want, more than just making people feel better." "What does it matter how people feel?" he demanded bitterly. "What difference do feelings make? One can't change facts!" Riki said firmly: "We humans are the only creatures in the universe who don't do anything else. Every other creature accepts facts. It lives where it is born, and it feeds on the food that is there for it, and it dies when the facts of nature require it to. We humans don't. Especially we women! We won't let men do it, either. When we don't like facts--mostly about ourselves--we change them. But important facts we disapprove of--we ask men to change them for us. And they do!" She faced Bordman. Rather incredibly, she grinned at him. "Will you please change the facts that look so annoying just now, please? Please?" Then she elaborately pantomimed an over-feminine girl's look of wide-eyed admiration. "You're so big and strong! I just know you can do it--for me!" She abruptly dropped the pretense and moved toward the door. She half-turned then, and said detachedly: "But about half of that is true." The door slid shut behind her. It suddenly occurred to Bordman that she knew a Colonial Survey ship was due to stop by here to pick him up. She believed he expected to be rescued, even though the rest of the colony could not be, and most of it wouldn't consent to leave their kindred when the death of mankind in this solar system took place. He said awkwardly: "Fifty thousand kilowatts isn't enough to land a ship." Herndon frowned. Then he said: "Oh. You mean the Survey ship that's to pick you up can't land? But it can go in orbit and put down a rocket landing-boat for you."