"She wanted to blow her mind out on fringe tea, and she wanted company. I left them alone. Treefodder, Carlot, if he does get Murphy mad at him, what'll she do?

Keep him out of the Navy!"

"... Yeah.'' Cariot began setting her gear up for cooking. She worked with furious energy.

Debby watched. Presently she asked, "Cariot, are you going to marry Raff Belmy?"

"I don't know. I just spent a couple of days with Raff aboard Woodsman. He seems-he takes it for granted we'll be married. He's so sure, he hardly mentioned it."

"So? It's what you told Rather."

"I know. Where is he?"

There were beams left over from the making of Logbearer. Clave brought them an armload. Cariot arrayed them and started a fire.

Booce paid off the hired crew and they departed. His own crew went to inspect the altered rocket. Booce was exuberant. Clave was proud. Debby made appropriate noises. Logbearer had been repaired in just four days.

The paint was well done, she thought. She wasn't qualified to judge' woodwork. The cabin was as big as the pod, roomy for half a dozen. Booce and Clave began the finishing touches: setting knobs and moorings into the hull, outside and in. Booce wanted particular patterns . . .

The fire was going well: a dim globe of heat, nearly invisible while both Voy and the sun bathed this side of the log. Cariot sliced the moby meat into two slabs. She set sliced vegetables between the slabs, locked them together with wooden pegs, and tethered it all within the fringe of the flame.

A distorted blue-fringed black man-shape swam across Voy.

"Rather! Where have you beenT' Cariot shouted. He reached the bark. "I'm in deep trouble," he said.

"Where's the Chairman?"

"Working on the rocket. What kind of trouble?"

"Cariot, maybe you can tell me." Rather looked bewildered, a little frightened. "I'm afraid I've gotten myself in deeper than I wanted."

Section Four

THE DARK AND THE LIGHT

Chapter Nineteen

The Dark

from the Citizens Tree cassettes, year 54 SM:

WE'VE HAD SERIOUS ARGUMENTS ABOUT WHY KENDY CUT CONTACT. MAYBE SOMETHING JUST BURNED OUT SOME CIRCUITS. MASS DOES CONSTANTLY RAIN OUT OF ORBIT ONTO VOY-MAKE THAT LEVOY'S STAR, MY APOLOGIES TO SHARON. A BIG INFALL WOULD CAUSE BIG MAGNETIC STORMS, MAYBE BIG ENOUGH TO BURN OUT DISCIPLINE'S COMPUTER, AND THE THICK SMOKE RING ATMOSPHERE WOULD STILL SHIELD US. I HATE TO THINK SO. I LIKED KENDY.

THAT SOUNDS CRAZY. A COMPUTER PROGRAM . . . I CAN'T HELP IT. KENDY HAD LESS IMAGINATION THAN THE TURKEYS. I TRIED TELLING HIM A JOKE, ONCE AND NEVERMORE. BUT I ADMIRE DEDICATION, AND KENDY HAD AS MUCH DEDICATION AS A MAN CAN STAND. I'M GOING TO LEAVE THIS IN.

-DENNIS QUINN, CAPTAIN