hat have you done? What did you DO to Project Hot Rod? No
one should have tampered with it without my direct order! Captain, if
that mechanism has been ruined, I'll have them nail your hide to the
door!"

"Major!" The captain stood. "This may be a civilian post, but you are
still an officer and I am your superior. Return to your quarters and
clean up. Then report to me properly!"

For a moment there was seething rebellion on Elbertson's already wild
features. Then, automatonlike, he turned and walked stiffly away
without saluting.

But the stiffness left him as he passed through the door. Momentarily
he sagged against a wall for support, far weaker than he thought
possible for a man of his youth and what he thought of as his
condition. Making his way almost blindly to Security's quarters in
rim-section B-5, he staggered through the door and on towards the
latrine, shouting at Chauvenseer to "Get out of that sack and give me
a detailed report on events since the flare. Oh, and send somebody for
coffee--lots of coffee."

* * * * *

On the bridge the captain flipped the intercom to Dr. Green's station.
"Is Major Elbertson under the influence of any unusual drugs, doctor?"
he asked when he'd reached the medical staff chief. "Anything that
might make his behavior erratic?"

"Only sedatives, captain. And, oh yes, those new sulph-hydral
anti-radiation shots. We're not too familiar with what they do, though
the reports indicate the worst effect is a mild anoxemia, which
generally results in something of a headache. Of course, that's if the
quantity of the drug was precisely calibrated. They can be fatal," he
added as an afterthought.

"Would anoxemia cause a change in character, doctor?"

"It might. It might make one behave either stupidly or
irrationally--temporarily or permanently, depending on the severity of
the effect."

"Did Major Elbertson seem normal to you when you discharged him from
hospital?"

"I did not discharge him, captain. I ordered him to remain under my
care. But he seemed greatly upset, and short of force I could not have
kept him from leaving."

"I see." The captain paused, then asked: "Doctor, please consider
carefully. Would you consider Major Elbertson's condition serious
enough to warrant confining him to bed by force?"

"Probably not. He should come out of it in a few hours. Exercise may
possibly be good for him, though I doubt if he's capable of much of