Captain Evans pushed away his tray, lit a cigar, and puffed stolidly. "I realize that I must consider the safety of my passengers, if that's what you mean." "That's included, of course." Jasperson made his voice warm and persuasive, the voice that had swayed boards of directors, the voice that reassured hesitant bankers. "Passenger safety is always paramount, of course, and I respect your attitude there. But in this particular case, isn't it possible that you are being too cautious?" "But Burl! Can the Captain of a ship _ever_ be too cautious? Think of his responsibility!" "His responsibility is very great, and I would never advise you, nor permit you, to shirk yours. But sometimes caution may cease to be a virtue. Think about this caution of yours for a minute. Surely you believe that I would never urge you to do anything against the interests of the ship, or against your own conscience? Now you have an excellent mind--logical, objective, clear. That was one reason we chose you for this place. Try to consider, for a moment, the bare possibility that your decision to reduce speed may not have been justified." * * * * * Evans was silent, and finally Burl asked, "How far did we get today?" "240 Light years." "And if you decide to continue at that speed for five or six days, that means we'll be approximately three days behind schedule in touching Almazin III?" "About that." "And that means we won't break the record. Now consider the reason for this very unhappy situation. Think about it with an open mind. You have one Pile heating--but has that never happened to a ship before, even in normal space? You and I both know it happens, and that ships have been lost because of a defective Pile. Logically, why shouldn't this be just another such case? You say it is caused by the Ripples, but as man to man, what objective evidence can you bring forward to prove their existence? I'm not trying to browbeat you, you understand, but just to ask you to look at the matter carefully. You said yourself, this morning, that you hadn't expected to be meeting the Ripples at this point--you had thought they occurred in a rather different area of hyperspace. Couldn't that mean that they don't really exist, anywhere?" Captain Evans wiped his glistening forehead with his handkerchief. "Yes," he said. "I was surprised. I'll admit I didn't expect them here. But there's so much we don't know about hyperspace!" "No, there's so much we _do_ know! Are you a child, to fancy there are goblins outside just because it's dark? There is a perfectly rational, alternative explanation for the things that worry you. Why can't you accept them?" Evans got up and began to pace the floor. "I guess I'm following a hunch." "But would you make us lose the Blue Ribbon for a mere hunch? Don't you trust your own objective judgment?" Sweating heavily, the Captain tried to stub out his cigar, but his hands were moist and his fingers trembled.