My irritation was mounting. Before the day ended, I had to rule on three men’s lives.

He said, “Christian Reunification swept Europe, which had become the most influential region of the globe. The U.N.

grew conservative and authoritarian. It issued the Unidollar, intervened in local conflicts, and took on the attributes of a real government. Incorporating the British Navy into the U.N.

military was a key step.”

I nodded. The Navy was our senior military service, and I was proud of it. I’d never even considered joining U.N. A.F.

“The U.N. also set universal education standards, wage rates--all right, I’ll pass over the details.” He smiled apologetically. “The liberal reaction came just as we began our push to colonize space.”

I asked, “If we were rebelling against central authority when the colonies were being formed, wouldn’t they have become virtually independent?”

“Not quite, Nick--er, Captain. The rebellion was in the impetus to colonize, to physically escape authority. But the colonies couldn’t stand on their own. In the counterreaction they were brought fully under the control of the Government.

Your Navy is the primary instrument of that control; that’s the reason cargo and passengers can only be carried between home and the colonies in a Naval vessel. And it’s why colonial Governors are often Admirals.”

“I thought it’s because they had the most experience.”

“Yes, as autocratic leaders. There’s really no difference between a colonial Governor and a Captain. They’re both autocratic symbols of the Government.”

I tried to follow. “And when you say we’re frozen at one end of the pendulum?”

“The colonies strain against the pull of the central government. The U.N., pulling the other direction, is locked into repression to maintain control.”

“That sounds dictatorial.” They’d issued me a voting card the week after I’d made middy, and I took our democracy seriously.

“Government authority derives from the Reunification.

The Yahwehist Church brought together religious forces dispersed for centuries. The U.N. Government is the agent and advocate of our state religion, which in turn supports the authority of the central government.”

I stirred uneasily; I wouldn’t tolerate heresy, if that’s where he was headed.

As if in reassurance he added, “The two forces are merged in yourself; you’re both chief magistrate and chaplain. Our

system is frozen: the colonies strain against authority; the state and church strain to maintain civil control by arbitrary decrees. It’s been so for seventy years.”

I stood to pace, troubled by his suggestion. “How can one justify supporting an oppressive government, if men like Tuak and Rogoff are to be hanged because of the rigidity of its rules?”

Ibn Saud said gravely, “Contrast what harm the repression does, with the harm that would be done without it. The Last War was bad enough; imagine an interplanetary war.”

“Wouldn’t a liberal say freedom is worth the risk?”

“And wouldn’t a conservative say civilization is worth the cost?” Ibn Saud, coming from the Saudi sheikhdoms, was of very conservative stock indeed.

Taking my leave, I climbed back to Level 1, found all quiet on the bridge. I left the Pilot and Vax to their boredom and continued my restless wandering.

The launch berth was cold, dim, and empty. Suiting up, I called to advise the bridge I was going through to the holds.

My defogger laboring, I climbed the ladder to the narrow passageway reserved for humankind alongside the huge cargo bays, past crates, containers, heavy machinery, farm implements. The suit didn’t have to protect me from vacuum, it merely assured a good air supply. The hold was pressurized, but its air wasn’t run through the recycler.

I was inching toward the tip of the pencil, far from the gravitrons in the engine room. As I climbed I felt lighter; as cadets we’d had to memorize the inverse square rule by which our gravity varied, but nothing clarified the rule as well as a practical demonstration.

The hull began to close in; I was approaching the narrowing point of Hibernia’sbow. At the top of the ladder I stood in the very prow of the ship, almost floating off the landing at the ladder’s end. My eye traced the ribbed skeleton of the ship back to the disk.

Living in the disk, surrounded by Hibernia’sjostling mass of humanity, I could see only the conflicts and demands it was the Captain’s role to arbitrate.

But here, at Hibernia’sbow, I became aware of the massive, complicated interweaving of metals and electronics that constituted the ship, bound together by power cables laced through the fabric of the vessel, and propelled by Fusion.

We were an oddly ritualized society, cramped together in the disk. We tended to forget that the ultimate purpose of our voyage was to sail this vast assemblage of cargo and persons to port, to be absorbed by our fast-growing colonies.

I sat on the landing, feet dangling from the ladder.

The many rules that regulated our conduct aboard--the strictures separating passengers and crew, the rigid hierarchy of seamen and officers, the isolation of the Captain--were meant to simplify our lives, to eliminate as many decisions as possible, so we confused and desire-ridden humans could steer this magnificent, complicated, and hugely expensive vessel to safe haven.

Without our regulations and ship’s customs, we’d face too many choices. Decisions about the human hierarchy: who was smarter, stronger, wiser. Decisions about ethical conduct, about what behaviors were conducive to the proper function of the ship. Decisions about internal controls: which urges, which desires, should be given vent and which should not.

Hibernia,this great mass of machinery hurled at unimaginable speed through infinite emptiness, could not be controlled by people forever at odds with themselves and each other.

Mr. Ibn Saud’s theory that repression alternated with permissiveness was irrelevant. For Hiberniato survive, the social system had to be maintained, else we’d all be condemned over and again to carve out our places in the ship’s hierarchy.

We were a planet too small to make a place for outsiders, misfits, loners. We had to learn to fit. One man who fought the system could wreck the ship.

Perhaps, though it could never be known, that was what had happened to Celestina,beyond the pale of civilization.

The hierarchy of Captain, officers, and crew was necessary to maintain the structure in which we functioned. Here beyond the gleam of our sun, we had to maintain our society

unaided.

Knowing now what I had to do, I got up and started slowly down the ladder to the disk.

15

“Chief McAndrews, report to the bridge.” I paced. The Chief, wherever he was, would hear my summons. I took the caller again, summoned Dr. Uburu.

Vax and the Pilot, on watch, observed me without comment.

“Vax, round up the middies. Quietly, please. I don’t want anyone else to know we’re all on the bridge.”

“Aye aye, sir.” He left on his mission.

I waited with growing impatience while the officers assembled. When all were present I slapped the hatch shut. “Stand at attention, all of you.”

They formed a line, eyes front, hands stiff at their sides, Doc Uburu as much as any of them instantly obedient to ship’s discipline. I faced them, picked up the holovid containing the Log.”There will be no discussion, no comment on this matter from any of you, here or in private. I have called you to witness an entry into the Log.” I typed quickly as I spoke.

“The death sentence imposed on Machinist’s Mate Herney is commuted to five months imprisonment. I have concluded that he was unaware he was striking an officer, and therefore should not suffer death as a penalty for his acts.”