He offered his arm for Hardwick to steady himself by. Hardwick ignored it. He stepped over a complex of white-painted pipes. He arrived at an almost clear way to a boat-blister. "And your luggage, sir," added the young man reassuringly, "will follow you down immediately, sir. With the mail." Hardwick nodded. He moved toward the blister door. He practically edged past constrictions due to new equipment. The Survey ship had been designed a long time ago, and there were no funds for rebuilding when improved devices came along. So any Survey ship was apt to be cluttered up with afterthoughts in metal. * * * * * A speaker from the wall said sharply: "_Hear this! Hold fast! Gravity going off!_" Hardwick caught at a nearby pipe, and snatched his hand away again--it was hot--and caught on to another and then put his other hand below. He applied a trifle of pressure. The young officer said kindly: "Hold fast, sir. The ship's gravity is going off. If I may suggest--" The gravity did go off. Hardwick grimaced. There'd been a time when he was used to such matters. This time the sudden outward surge of his breath caught him unprepared. His diaphragm contracted as the weight of organs above it ceased to be. He choked for an instant. He was irritated. He said evenly: "I am not likely to go head-over-heels, lieutenant. I served four years as a junior swot on a ship exactly like this!" He did not float about. He held onto a pipe in two places, and he applied expert pressure in a strictly professional manner, and his feet remained firmly on the floor. He startled young Barnes by the achievement, which only junior swots think only junior swots know about. Barnes said, abashed: "Yes, sir." He held himself firm in the same fashion. "I even know," said Hardwick crisply, "that the gravity had to be cut off because we're approaching another ship on Lawlor-drive. Our gravity-coils would blow if we got into her field with our drive off, or if her field pressed ours inboard." Young Barnes looked extremely uncomfortable. Hardwick felt sorry for him. To be chewed--however delicately--for patronizing a senior officer could not be pleasant. So Hardwick added: "And I also remember that, when I was a junior swot I once tried to tell a Sector Chief how to top off his suit-tanks. So don't let it bother you!" The young officer was embarrassed. But a Sector Chief was so high in the table of Survey organization that one of his idle thoughts was popularly supposed to be able to crack a junior officer's skull. If Hardwick, as a young officer, had really tried to tell a Sector Chief how to top his suit-tanks.... Why.... "Thank you, sir," said Barnes awkwardly. "I'll try not to be an ass again, sir." "I suspect," said Hardwick, "that you'll slip occasionally. I did! What the devil's another ship doing out here and why aren't we landing?"