"Listen, please. They killed Lazarus Six. He was a scapegoat. They watched the old films of Earth and felt they had been cheated out of their birthright. Why should they live here, alone in space? they said. Why should their children's children face the hardships of a new world? They didn't ask for it. It was thrust upon them by the planners, by your generation. If they knew how to get into your room of tubs, they would have killed you. Now there is a mock ceremony, everything is blamed on the new Lazarus, and the people feel better when he is killed. I know, my mother told me. You can ask her----" The girl was about twenty, Eric thought. A wild-eyed thing now, who so wanted him to believe her impossible story. Her breath came quickly, in little gasps, and Eric tried to hide the smile on his face. "You're laughing at me! Stupid, stupid--please--And when you get back to your room of tubs, awaken your friends, the three who remain. You four can control the ship, put it back on course, teach the people--Ooo, stop laughing!" She pouted prettily. "All of us, we're not all like that. We who are not can help you." Eric chuckled softly. "You try to picture it," he told her. "I'm sorry, but everything's been sweetness and light, and you come in here with a wild notion--" "It isn't wild, it's the truth. Why don't you ask to check our course before they make you king?" He could do that, all right. But they'd be wondering what mad neurosis compelled his actions, and he did not want that, not when he might have so much to do. "Check it," she pleaded. And when he shook his head, she told him, "You're acting like a child, you know. The records say you are twenty-five, and you've slept for seven times that, but still. All you have to do is check. Please--" The door burst in upon them, and Lindquist stood there, with Captain Larkin and two others. Lindquist shook his head sadly. "I thought so," he said. Captain Larkin nodded. "A Cultist child. Shame, isn't it?" One of the other men strode forward, and the girl cowered behind Eric. "Don't believe them!" she wailed. "Lies--" "There are so many of them," Lindquist explained. "Apparently, we're in an area of high radiation now, Mr. Taine. So many of our people are deranged. I won't guess at the cause, except to say it's probably outside the ship." The man came around Eric, tch-tch'd when the girl jumped on the bed and stood trembling against the headboard. "Now, Laurie," the man coaxed. "Come on down, there's a good girl." Eric wanted to help her, but he checked the impulse. He only felt protective. There could be nothing in the girl's story. Best if they took her and treated her. "... a whole cult of them," Lindquist was saying. "All lacking something up here." He tapped his head. "They don't trust anyone, only members. Think we're doing all sorts of foolish things. I don't know, what would you call it in your day. Paranoia?"