"Yes. I heard about it. But I'd been thinking for some time that I should tell you about it. It was just... it was just that I couldn't bear the thought of being left behind. And I really don't think I'm a danger to the ship."

"It would be bad if you had an attack during a crucial moment of flight. You know that, of course. Well, here's the way I look at it, Jill. Barring Thorn, you're the best airshipman-I mean, person- that we have. Unlike Thorn, who was a keen airman but doesn't make aeronauting his whole life, you're a fanatic. I honestly think you'd pass up a roll in the hay for an hour's flight. Myself, I'd try to combine both.

"I wouldn't want to lose you, and if I had to, I'd worry about your killing yourself. No, don't protest, I really think you would. Which makes you unbalanced in that respect. However, I have to consider the welfare of ship and crew first, so I'd discharge you if I had to, no matter how much it would grieve me.

"So I'm putting you on probation. If you don't have another attack or hallucination from now until the ship takes off for the big voyage, then you'll be in.

"The only trouble with this is that I'll have to depend on your word for it that you've not had an attack. Well, not really. I could put you under hypnosis to find out if you've been telling the truth. But I don't like to do that. It'd mean I don't trust you. I don't want anybody on the ship I can't trust one hundred percent."

Jill felt like running over to him and throwing her arms around him. Her eyes filmed, and she almost sobbed with joy. But she stayed in her chair. An officer did not embrace the captain. Besides, he might misinterpret her behavior and try to take her into his bedroom.

She felt ashamed of herself. Firebrass would never take advan­tage of any woman. He would scorn using his influence. At least, she thought he would.

"I don't understand about this hypnosis," shesaid. "How could you make all the others go through with it but omit me? That's discrimination which the others ..."

"I've changed my mind about that."

He got up and walked to a rolltop desk, bent over it to write on a piece of paper, and then gave it to her.

"Here. Take this down to Doc Graves. He'll take an X-ray of you."

She was bewildered. "Whatever on earth for?"

"As your captain I could tell you to shut up and obey my order. I won't because you'd be resentful. Let's just say it's something the psychologists learned in 2000 A.D. It would defeat the purpose of the test if I told you what it was all about.

"Everybody else will have to be X-rayed, too. You have the honor of being the first."

"I don't understand," shemurmured. "But I'll do it, of course."

She rose. "Thank you."

"No thanks necessary. Now get your tail down to Doc Graves.''

When she arrived at the doctor's office, she found him talking on the phone. He was frowning and chewing his cigar savagely.

"All right, Milt. I'll do it. But I don't like it that you won't confide in me."

He hung the phone up and turned to her." Hello, Jill. You' ll have to wait until Ensign Smithers gets here. He'll pick up the X-ray photos as soon as they're made and run them up to Firebrass."

"He has a darkroom?"

"No. They don't need developing. Didn't you know? They're just like other photographs, electronically processed at the moment they're taken. Firebrass himself designed the equipment. It's a process developed about 1998, he said."

Graves began striding back and forth, biting hard oh the cigar.

"Damn it! He won't even let me see the X-rays! Why?"

"He said he didn't want anyone but himself to see the X-rays .It's part of the psychological evaluation tests-."

"How in hell could X-rays of the head tell you anything about a man's psyche? Is he nuts?"

"I suppose he'll tell us all about it when he's seen all the photos. By the way, speaking of a man's psyche, I'm not a man."

"I was speaking in the abstract."

He stopped and scowled even more fiercely. "I won't be able to sleep nights worrying about this. Man, I wish I'd lived longer. I shuffled off this mortal coil in 1980, so I didn't get to see the later developments in medical science. Just as well, I suppose. I couldn't keep up with the deluge of new stuff as it was."

Turning to Jill, and stabbing the cigar at her, he said, "Something I'd like to. ask you, Jill. Something that's been bothering me. Firebrass is the only one I've ever met who lived beyond 1983. Have you ever met anyone who did?"

She blinked with surprise. "No-o-o. No, I haven't, now I think about it. Firebrass excepted."

For a moment, she had been about to tell him about Stem. That was going to be a hard secret to keep.

"Neither have I. Damn peculiar."

"Not really," she said. "Of course, I haven't been all over The River, but I have traveled several hundred thousand kilometers and talked to thousands of people. The twentieth-century people seem to have been scattered thinly everywhere. If they were resurrected in clumps, as it were, I never heard of any. So that means that anywhere in the Valley you'll likely find a few, but most of the population segments will be from other centuries.

"So there's nothing remarkable in the rarity of people born after 1983."

"Yeah? Maybe so. Ah, here comes Smithers and two other thugs. Step into my X-rated parlor, my dear, as the spider said to the fly."

36

Extracts from various editions of The Daily Leak:

Dmitri "Mitya" Ivanovitch Nikitin is pro tempore pilot third officer of the Parseval. He was born in 1885 in Gomel, Russia, of middle-class parents. His father was a harness-factory owner; his mother taught piano. His qualifications for candidacy were based on his experience as chief steers­man of the Russie, a French airship built by the Lebaudy-Juillot Company in 1909 for the Russian government.

Ms. Jill Gulbirra, chief airship instructor, says that Mit-ya's experience was rather limited from her viewpoint, but he has shown excellent ability. However, according to rumors, he is too fond of skull-bloom. Take a tip from us, Mitya. Lay off the booze.

... Charges will not be brought by the editor against Pilot Nikitin. During a necessarily brief interview in the hospital, Mr. Bagg said, "I've been laid out by better men than that big slob. The next time he comes charging into my office, I'll be prepared. The reason I'm not having him arrested isn't just because I have a big heart, however. I just want a chance to personally knock his brains out. Speak softly and carry a big stick."

... Ettore Arduino is Italian (what else?), but he is blond and blue-eyed and can pass for a Swede as long as he keeps his mouth shut and doesn't eat garlic. As all but new citizens know, he entered Parolando two months ago and was im­mediately signed up for training. He has an illustrious though tragic history, having been chief motor engineer on the airship Norge and then on the Italia under Umberto Nobile. (See page 6 for a minibiogrpahy of this son of Rome.) The Norge accomplished its primary mission to fly over the North Pole on May 12, 1926. It also established that there was no large land mass between the North Pole and Alaska as reported by that great explorer, Commodore Robert E. Peary (1856-1920), the first man to reach the North Pole (1909). (Though Peary was accompanied by a Negro, Matthew Henson, and four Eskimos whose names we don't remember, actually Henson was the first man to stand on the North Pole.)

The Italia, after passing over the Pole, found itself buck­ing a very strong headwind on its way to King's Bay. The controls jammed from heavy icing; a crash seemed assured. However, the ice melted, and the airship proceeded. Some time later, the vessel began to fall slowly. The helpless crew was forced to stand by while the queen of the skies struck the surface ice. The control gondola was torn off, a fortuitous event for those in it. These scrambled out and then looked up in shock as the dirigible, freed of the weight of the gondola, rose again.