The giant dropped to the deck with a catlike grace that nevertheless vibrated Ben's rear teeth. "You want to talk about something?" the big spaceman inquired. Ben could almost see the paws hanging down and the tail wagging eagerly. * * * * * "Yeah," Starbuck said. "I'd like to talk about all of these men staring at me. What's wrong with them? Nobody's said a word to me but you. What are they waiting for? What are they going to do? I can't stand the suspense. Is that it? I get the silent treatment until I go off my rocker, get violent, and then something happens to me--" He stopped and swallowed. He was talking too much. He was working himself up into a state of terror. "Say, you sure are _friendly_," the ox said with some confusion. "My name's Percy Kettleman." Starbuck steadied his hand and put it in Percy's grasp. It came out whole. "Those other fellows," Percy inclined his head. "What about them?" Starbuck asked edgily. "They'd probably like to come over and say 'hello' but them and me don't get along so good. They know better than to come around bothering me." "You're not on their side? You wouldn't be a new man too, Percy?" "Me? Hell, I've been spacing since I was sixteen. Those guys don't have any side. A bunch of anti-social slobs. They can't stand each other any more than I can stand any of them." Starbuck decided he had picked a good ally in the midst of a pack of lone wolves. Percy was the biggest man on board, physically. Still he didn't like the idea of all the rest of crew looking daggers at him, or throwing them, for that matter. "Mind if I say 'hello' to the rest of the men?" he inquired of Percy. "It's your nickel," gruffly. "Spend it the way you want." Starbuck flexed an elbow. "Hello there, fellows. Looks to be a taut ship." It sounded a shade inane. Starbuck had barely passed Socializing at the university. But the men replied in good spirits, their faces blooming with teeth, arms waggling, calling out modest insults. Starbuck recalled that among a certain class of men an insult was a good-natured compliment in negative translation. "_Pssst._" "Pssst?" Starbuck asked. Kettleman passed him down half a roll of white tablet underhand. Starbuck took it. "Tums?" "Tranquils. We smuggle them on board. Helps with the blastoff and 'phasing' for the overdrive. Not that those stiffnecked brass will believe it." "Thanks, Kettleman. You and everybody seems to be pretty helpful to me. I don't know exactly what I've done to deserve it." "We get tired of looking at the same faces out there month after month. It's a treat to have somebody new on hand." It sounded reasonable to him, but he felt there was something more to it than that. Well, he was an ethnologist, or almost one. He could figure out group behavior. All he had to do was take time to think about the problem for a little while.... Only he didn't have time to think. He discovered why everybody was in their bunks.