Ensign Welnicki wished he were dead but did not see how that would help. After a long silence the captain spoke again. "I have one last hope, Stephen. Something you've overlooked. I got it from Rutledge." The ensign looked his question. "You didn't formally assume plenipotentiary status until _after_ you signed, so technically your signature is not binding. Now if it was a forced subterfuge to counter logistic pressure, your ship being lost and all, we can repudiate the treaty without breaching faith. Only you can really know." Ensign Welnicki breathed deeply. "The Fishdollars with no treaty, how they can survive, I don't know, captain...." "We'll leave message capsules. When they call for help we'll dump 'em on Rewbobbin." "I ... I don't know, captain." "We can fix everything else, save your career." "No, sir. The treaty stands." "You signed falsely and you know it." "I can say--I hereby do say that I signed second copies afterward. The treaty stands, sir!" Ensign Welnicki stood up, suddenly feeling good. Captain Kravitz stood up too, face tautly impersonal. "All right," he said, shuffling papers on his desk. "I want to lift out as soon as possible." He pulled out a paper and looked coldly at the ensign. "As you may or may not know, your marriage makes you a citizen of Fishdollar Five," he went on. "As you may or may not know, your precious treaty forbids removal of a citizen to another planet without governmental consent. I doubt the admirals at Prime Reference would choose to come all the way out here just to court-martial one small ensign. But as you _certainly_ know, your marriage means the automatic revocation of your commission. You will save me trouble and delay by signing this resignation." He shoved the paper across the desk. Ensign Welnicki looked at it stupidly. His inner song was muted. "Sgt. Chong will stay to command the temporary base force," the captain was saying. "Within a year you may expect a Patrol construction fleet to open your communications and start work on the base. Your pay accounts can be settled then. There! Sign it!" Ensign Welnicki bent and signed. The captain looked at the paper and handed it back. "Use your right name," he said. Ensign Welnicki looked blank. "Stephen _Fishdollar_!" the captain roared. The ensign looked blanker still. "Ensign Fishdollar, some day you really must read through the legal codes of your adopted planet," the captain said mock-earnestly. "One of the changes made by the Fishdollars in the Sigma-3 Velorum codes was to make marriage and descent matrilineal. That way their name escapes Rho-death." Ensign Fishdollar sagged. His inner song faded to a whisper. "Very, very clever of the Fishdollars," the captain said musingly. "To link their name with the X-chromosome rather than with the Y. So it becomes as low-Rho as it was high before. Very clever indeed. "Ensign Fishdollar, you utter lamb, did you honestly not _know_ that?" he finished with a roar.