nk it worthy of hell. Coffin had
never understood how his atheist colleagues endured free space.

Well--

He took aim at the next hull and fired his little spring-powered
crossbow. A light line unreeled behind the magnetic bolt. He tested its
security with habitual care, pulled himself along until he reached the
companion ship, yanked the bolt loose and fired again, and so on from
hull to slowly orbiting hull, until he reached the _Pioneer_.

Its awkward ugly shape was like a protective wall against the stars.
Coffin drew himself past the ion tubes, now cold. Their skeletal
structure seemed impossibly frail to have hurled forth peeled atoms at
one half c. Mass tanks bulked around the vessel; allowing for
deceleration, plus a small margin, the mass ratio was about nine to one.
Months would be required at Rustum to refine enough reaction material
for the home voyage. Meanwhile such of the crew as were not thus engaged
would help the colony get established--

If it ever did!

Coffin reached the forward air lock and pressed the "doorbell." The
outer valve opened for him, and he cycled through. First Officer
Karamchand met him and helped him doff armor. The other man on duty
found an excuse to approach and listen; for monotony was as corrosive
out here as distance and strangeness.

"Ah, sir. What brings you over?"

Coffin braced himself. Embarrassment roughened his tone: "I want to see
Miss Zeleny."

"Of course--But why come yourself? I mean, the telecircuit--"

"In person!" barked Coffin.

"What?" escaped the crewman. He propelled himself backward in terror of
a wigging. Coffin ignored it.

"Emergency," he snapped. "Please intercom her and arrange for a private
discussion."

"Why ... why ... yes, sir. At once. Will you wait here ... I mean ...
yes, sir!" Karamchand shot down the corridor.

Coffin felt a sour smile on his own lips. He could understand if they
got confused. His own law about the women had been like steel, and now
he violated it himself.

The trouble was, he thought, no one knew if it was even required. Until
now there had been few enough women crossing space, and then only within
the Solar System, on segregated ships. There was no background of
interstellar experience. It seemed reasonable, though, that a man on his
year-watch should not be asked to tend deepsleeping female colonists.
(Or vice versa!) The idea revolted Coffin personally; but for once the
psychotechs had agreed with him. And