rest on the astro-navigator. "How about it, Ron? How about me and you
fixing us up some chow?"

"Sure," said Hargraves. "Go on back to the galley and start fixing
yourself whatever you want. You go with him, Ron. I'll handle your job
up here while you're gone."

Nodding dumbly, Ron Val started to follow Sarkoff toward the galley.
"One minute," Hargraves called after him. "I want to check something
with you before you go!"

Sarkoff kept going. Ron Val returned. "Take your cues from him,"
Hargraves said. "You know him better than anyone else. Whatever he says,
you agree. Casually bring up past events and watch his reaction. _Your
job is to find out if that is really Hal Sarkoff!_"

The astro-navigator, his face white, clumped toward the galley.

Hargraves faced a torrent of questions.

"Jed! We buried him."

"Jed. He had been in that engine room without air for at least ten
minutes before we got there. He can't be alive."

"No air. Temperature diving toward absolute zero. He was frozen stiff,
Jed, before we moved him. We left him where he was until long after we
landed."

"I know," Hargraves said. "There is no doubt about it. I used a
stethoscope on him as soon as I could get to it after we landed. _He was
dead._ There wasn't a sign of life."

Frightened faces looked at him. Awed faces. Bewildered faces.

"What did you mean when you told Ron Val to find out if that is really
Sarkoff?"

"Just what I said. That may be Sarkoff. It may be something that looks
like Sarkoff, acts like him, talks like him--_but isn't he_!"

"That--that's impossible."

"How do we know what is possible here and what isn't?"

"What are we going to do?"

"We're going to act just as we would if that were Sarkoff. We're going
to pick up our cues from him? You remember he said he was out scouting.
That is his story. We will not question it. We will act as though it
were true, until we know what is happening. Now everybody back to his
post. Act as if nothing had happened. And for the love of Pete, don't
ask me what is going on. I don't know any more than you do."

They didn't want to obey that order. They had just seen a dead man
walking, had heard him talking, had spoken to him. There was comfort in
just being with each other. Hargraves walked to the bridge, waited.
Eventually, discipline sent them back to their posts. He kept on
waiting. Ron Val returned.

"I don't know, Jed. I just don't know. We were in school together. I
br