he
was shivering so violently she could hardly walk. The exposure to the
night air, the nervous tension, overwrought emotions....

She could not remember getting back into the cabin, crawling into bed.
She knew only that a little later she was in bed, still shaking
violently with a chill, burning with fever.

She was awakened in the morning with the sound of the axe chopping on
wood. She dragged herself out of bed, forlorn, sick, filled with shame.
Her head spun so wildly that she sank to her knees and lay it on the
bed. Then her pride and her will forced her to her feet, and she drove
herself to dress, to go into the big room, dig out glowing coals from
beneath ashes, put them in the little cook stove, pile fine slivers of
resin-rich kindling on top of them, blow on them.

Between painful breaths, she heard herself sobbing. Her teeth started
chattering again, and there was a ringing in her ears. She heard the
blows of the axe falling on the wood, and each blow transferred itself
to the base of her skull. The ringing in her ears grew louder and
louder.

She heard one of the men shout. It sounded like Sam. Had he hurt himself
with the axe, gashed his leg or something? She'd always been afraid of
that axe! She'd told them and told them to be careful!

She pulled herself up from her knees there at the stove where she had
been blowing on the coals. She must get out there, help him! That
terrible buzzing in her head, that ringing in her ears. No matter, she
must get out there to help him.

[Illustration]

She threw open the door and saw Sam running toward the lifeship. Had he
lost his mind? The bandages were here. She had them here! She saw Lt.
Harper come to the door of the bunkhouse. He was still pulling on his
pants. He started running toward the lifeship, too, cinching his belt as
he ran.

Then she realized that at least part of the ringing in her ears came
from the lifeship. At first it had no meaning for her, then she
remembered them talking about fixing up some kind of alarm, so that if
they got a signal through....

She started running toward the lifeship. She stumbled, fell, got up,
felt as light as a feather, as heavy as mercury. She crawled up the
steps of the lifeship, she clutched at the door. She heard Sam speaking
very slowly, carefully.

"Do you read me? _Is this Earth?_"

She saw his face. She knew the answer.

And that was the last she knew.

* * * * *

Con