"

Westerburg nodded.

"Corporal, may I ask you something? Do you plan to do this the rest of
your life, sit out in the sun on a flat rock? Nothing else?"

Westerburg nodded.

"How about your job? You went to school for years to become a Patrolman.
You wanted to enter the Patrol very badly. You were given a fine rating
and a first-class position. How do you feel, giving all that up? You
know, it won't be easy to get back in again. Do you realize that?"

"I realize it."

"And you're really going to give it all up?"

"That's right."

* * * * *

Harris was silent for a while. At last he put his cigarette out and
turned toward the youth. "All right, let's say you give up your job and
sit in the sun. Well, what happens, then? Someone else has to do the job
instead of you. Isn't that true? The job has to be done, _your_ job has
to be done. And if you don't do it someone else has to."

"I suppose so."

"Westerburg, suppose everyone felt the way you do? Suppose everyone
wanted to sit in the sun all day? What would happen? No one would check
ships coming from outer space. Bacteria and toxic crystals would enter
the system and cause mass death and suffering. Isn't that right?"

"If everyone felt the way I do they wouldn't be going into outer space."

"But they have to. They have to trade, they have to get minerals and
products and new plants."

"Why?"

"To keep society going."

"Why?"

"Well--" Harris gestured. "People couldn't live without society."

Westerburg said nothing to that. Harris watched him, but the youth did
not answer.

"Isn't that right?" Harris said.

"Perhaps. It's a peculiar business, Doctor. You know, I struggled for
years to get through Training. I had to work and pay my own way. Washed
dishes, worked in kitchens. Studied at night, learned, crammed, worked
on and on. And you know what I think, now?"

"What?"

"I wish I'd become a plant earlier."

Doctor Harris stood up. "Westerburg, when you come inside, will you
stop off at my office? I want to give you a few tests, if you don't
mind."

"The shock box?" Westerburg smiled. "I knew that would be coming around.
Sure, I don't mind."

Nettled, Harris left the rock, walking back up the bank a short
distance. "About three, Corporal?"

The Corporal nodded.

Harris made his way up the hill, to the path, toward the hospital
building. The whole thing was beginning to become more clear to him. A
boy wh