o had struggled all his life. Financial insecurity. Idealized
goal, getting a Patrol assignment. Finally reached it, found the load
too great. And on Asteroid Y-3 there was too much vegetation to look at
all day. Primitive identification and projection on the flora of the
asteroid. Concept of security involved in immobility and permanence.
Unchanging forest.

He entered the building. A robot orderly stopped him almost at once.
"Sir, Commander Cox wants you urgently, on the vidphone."

"Thanks." Harris strode to his office. He dialed Cox's letter and the
Commander's face came presently into focus. "Cox? This is Harris. I've
been out talking to the boy. I'm beginning to get this lined up, now. I
can see the pattern, too much load too long. Finally gets what he wants
and the idealization shatters under the--"

"Harris!" Cox barked. "Shut up and listen. I just got a report from Y-3.
They're sending an express rocket here. It's on the way."

"An express rocket?"

"Five more cases like Westerburg. All say they're plants! The Garrison
Chief is worried as hell. Says we _must_ find out what it is or the
Garrison will fall apart, right away. Do you get me, Harris? Find out
what it is!"

"Yes, sir," Harris murmured. "Yes, sir."

* * * * *

By the end of the week there were twenty cases, and all, of course, were
from Asteroid Y-3.

Commander Cox and Harris stood together at the top of the hill, looking
gloomily down at the stream below. Sixteen men and four women sat in the
sun along the bank, none of them moving, none speaking. An hour had gone
by since Cox and Harris appeared, and in all that time the twenty people
below had not stirred.

"I don't get it," Cox said, shaking his head. "I just absolutely don't
get it. Harris, is this the beginning of the end? Is everything going to
start cracking around us? It gives me a hell of a strange feeling to see
those people down there, basking away in the sun, just sitting and
basking."

"Who's that man there with the red hair?"

"That's Ulrich Deutsch. He was Second in Command at the Garrison. Now
look at him! Sits and dozes with his mouth open and his eyes shut. A
week ago that man was climbing, going right up to the top. When the
Garrison Chief retires he was supposed to take over. Maybe another year,
at the most. All his life he's been climbing to get up there."

"And now he sits in the sun," Harris finished.

"That woman. The brunette,