This time there was a crowd, and they acted differently. They were enthusiastic. There were doctors and nurses. Their faces were twisted with admiration. Stronger than the admiration was a fearful kind of disbelief. The Doctor touched his lips with his tongue and coughed uneasily as he stared at Stevens. Major Kanin was beaming. "Man," his voice boomed through the hospital room. "Man! You're alive. No one knows how you can be alive, but you are! We've licked it. It's a miracle!" Voices agreed with that in a chorus of incredulous whispers. Miracle.... The Major said, "I've already got that pardon coming through, Stevens. It'll be probational of course, but that will all be forgotten now, Stevens. You're something special." The doctors and nurses stared at him with unbelieving eyes. "You've been examined thoroughly, Stevens, and you're all right, not a scratch! It's impossible, but it's true. Every doctor here, every mechanic, says it's impossible. Your ship's just a pile of melting metal, Stevens, but you crawled out of it absolutely uninjured. Nobody understands it, but everybody's glad!" The Doctor whispered. "Miracles like this sometimes happen, but no one can explain them. His body should be torn to pieces, burned. Well, he certainly had to have had some unique physical quality to have gotten through the high velocity peak." "Yes, you hear that, Stevens?" the Major boomed. Stevens was staring at the ceiling. He was trying to think, to remember. "Now listen to this, Stevens. You went up a convict, and now you're a hero. You're in perfect physical condition, so we're going right ahead with Project Ultimo. And you'll handle the rocket, Stevens! If anyone can get to the Moon, you can, from this exhibition today!" "What's that," Stevens said. He looked at their faces. "It'll take a week to get the rocket ready," the Major said. "It's the Moon now, Stevens! The Moon!" "The Moon," Stevens repeated. "This will be no secret, Stevens!" Major Kanin stood up, his chest out, his heavy-jowled face glowing with triumph. "The world will know about it when you take off, this time. This won't be secret. The Enemy will know then that they've lost! Lost, utterly and unquestionably. With military bases on the Moon, they'll be helpless and they'll know it when you make that successful flight! One week, Stevens!" Stevens looked out the window at the gray curtain of rain. "What was that? One week--" Something stirred in his memory. He grappled for it, lost it. He closed his eyes. "Seven days, Stevens, that's all!" He didn't answer. For an instant, behind the bottomless darkness of his closed lids, he saw something--something intangible and shimmering, beyond the grayness and rain. And then it was gone.