"Ben, I think you don't fully appreciate the nature of the mission of the Space Service," Captain Birdsel said, flexing one knee and performing a difficult one-legged swing on the bar. "It is our duty to go ever onward into the mystery of the Unknown. Ever deeper, ever traveling into the heart of the Secrets of the Universe. Nothing can stop us. Nothing!" "I'll try to remember, sir. Was that all?" "One more thing," said the inverted captain. "I think you are to be relieved of the duty of officiating at the phasing." "_Correct_," said another voice, one Starbuck had never before heard. "That's all now, Ben." "Very good, sir." Starbuck paused at the door. "That's a fine trapeze you have there, sir." "Thank you, Ben." * * * * * "I don't want to jump to conclusions," Ben said to the knot of men gathered around him listening to his story of the interview with the captain, "but I think Captain Birdsel is--is--" "Psychotic?" suggested Romero. "Schizoid?" Percy Kettleman ventured. "'_Nuts_' is the word I was searching for," Starbuck concluded. "I believe he intends to keep phasing and phasing, taking us deeper into space and never returning to Earth or the inhabited universe." "I guess," Kettleman opined, "that we will just have to convince him that he is wrong in that attitude." "We can make a formal written complaint and request for an explanation under Section XXIV," Romero said. "Is that what you had in mind, Ben?" "_I_ had a straitjacket in mind," Starbuck admitted. "But I'm new in the Space Service. I have a selfish motive. I want to get back to Earth sometime and a vine-covered ethnology class." "We better go take him," Kettleman said heavily. "As much as I dislike agreeing with an ox like you, Kettleman," Romero said, "I conclude it is best." There was a general rumble of agreement. "Wait, wait," a youngish man whose name Starbuck vaguely remembered to be Horne stepped forward, his eyes glittering with contact lenses. "I ask you men to remember Christopher Columbus. I like our captain no more than any of you, but he may be right. Perhaps what he is doing is vital. We shouldn't let our selfish fears...." Always, Starbuck thought, always some egghead comes along to gum up the works. Starbuck knew he would need a decisive argument to overcome Horne's objective theory. Starbuck slugged him. Horne crumpled after a flashy right cross Starbuck had developed in his extreme youth, and Starbuck took a giant step over him, heading for the bridge. The other crew members followed him. Besides, Starbuck thought, he had always considered arguing by analogy to be sloppy thinking. * * * * * "Don't come in here!" Captain Birdsel yelled through the partly closed hatch to the bridge. "You'll regret it if you do." Starbuck swallowed hard, and reached for the door handle. Percy Kettleman vised his wrist. "I'll go first, little chum."