The Colonel shrugged. "I refuse to authorize your going out to Mandmoora Island. Be reasonable, miss, can't you? We have evacuated a hundred million Mandmoorans in history's greatest mass exodus. Three thousand fanatics don't want out. Three thousand fanatics will broil with their world, then. That's all." "But if they could be led to understand." "I thought you wanted a story. A human interest story, wasn't it?" "I was only thinking out loud." "I've given you the only story you'll get here. Why should your video service expect more than the others?" "No reason, I guess," Jane knew now that the answer was definitely no. She was hardly listening to the Colonel as he went on. There had to be another way, somewhere, somehow. It was the story of the century--and there wasn't another newsman on Mandmoora with a chance to scoop her. Which also meant that if Jane didn't get the story, the rest of the civilized galaxy wouldn't, either, except for watered-down public information releases. "... otherwise," the Colonel was saying. "The press people have said we were more than fair, miss. We let them set up a headquarters beyond the Mandmooranian sun's eighth planet: our experts said the nova won't explode that far, you know. Headquarters will be safe there. We've even agreed to let the last ship out stop at press headquarters for an interview before it goes subspace for the dash to Deneb. What could be fairer?" "Nothing, I guess," Jane said. "Well, thank you for your time, Colonel." "Not at all, young lady." The Colonel touched something on his desk and a door at the other end of the office opened, irising with a faint hissing sound. Through it Jane could hear the sounds of office machinery, think-writers and duplics and a subspace ticker coming in with the news from the rest of the galaxy. A woman, thought Jane. Maybe if I was a man it would have been different, but they wanted a woman's viewpoint because it's a heartstring-plucking story. She recalled the Colonel's first incredulous outburst. "But I can't send a _woman_ out there, Miss Crowley. A woman!" * * * * * As she reached the door, impulse became idea and idea came to the surface for execution. "Thank you very much, Colonel," she said in a clear, loud voice. "Interstellar News Alliance knew it could count on you." "What's that?" demanded the Colonel in a voice barely audible across the large room. He was busy now with a mountain of last minute paperwork and was listening only with one ear, the rest of him already hard at work. "Thanks again, Colonel," Jane said, and stepped through the irised shutter of a door. She turned to show her best smile to the sergeant-major at the desk immediately outside the door. "There, sergeant," she said, smiling. "You see? I told you the Colonel would give me an unlimited pass."