"Well, it all depends upon what
Frendon told them, but, of course, he might have been drunk himself at
the time, and a man like him would hesitate to admit something like
that. That shouldn't be too hard to demonstrate. In which case," I
added, letting them see a grin on my face, "he might have gone by
himself after all, and then none of us would have to be even slightly
implicated. Like for instance, if he spent some time with us drinking,
and then went off by himself, how would we know where he was going?"

They all laughed with evident relief. It would be a good story. They
all knew that none of them had induced Frendon to disable himself, and
for them that settled the question of who did it. Their willingness to
take a full share of the blame off me settled the only other question I
myself was concerned about.

And this morning, when CINCMARS confirmed my acting captain status, and
sent us a raw recruit for third officer replacement after moving Harding
up to acting Exec, everybody was satisfied and happy.

As happy as any small group of reluctant soldiers about to go into
battle is ever likely to get, anyway.

* * * * *

Lieutenant Maise dropped the report back on the SR Officer's desk when
he had finished reading it.

"How did you like it?" the SR wanted to know.

"All right," Maise murmured. "It covers it. I just hope they can make
some use of it, so that in the future the assignment of a Psi Corps
officer won't be a general signal for a small-time mutiny."

"That's the whole point of making these reports. They'll work out
something."

Maise nodded. "Where's Frendon now?"

"He was transferred to XXX Base three days ago, right after he left your
ship. Couldn't let him run around here for a while. Not after the
trouble with your crew--somebody might recognize him. Besides, he
already has another assignment there."

"I think it was a pretty stupid thing," Maise grumbled. "He was so
obvious. And suppose I hadn't warned him about it that night, or that I
hadn't been there when the spore-poisoning idea came to a head among the
crew? They might really have tried to get him outside the dome, or to
get a spore culture inside. And then we'd all be sick or dead."

"Not likely, sir," the SR Officer said with a polite, knowing smile.
"You see, the aliens are presumably susceptible to their own
bacteriological weapons. At least we think so from the way they went
about it. They want