, of course, waking men and women,
freely intermingling, were potentially even more explosive. Haremlike
seclusion appeared the only answer; and husband and wife were not to be
awake at the same time.

Bad enough to see women veiled when there was a telecircuit conference.
(Or did the masks make matters still worse, by challenging the
imagination? Who knew?) Best seal off the living quarters and coldvat
sections of the craft which bore them. Crewmen standing watches on those
particular ships had better return to their own vessels to sleep and
eat.

Coffin braced his muscles. _The rules wouldn't apply if a large meteor
struck_, he reminded himself. _What has come up is more dangerous than
that. So never mind what anyone thinks._

Karamchand returned to salute him and say breathlessly: "Miss Zeleny
will see you, captain. This way, if you please."

"Thanks." Coffin followed to the main bulkhead. The women had its
doorkey. Now the door stood ajar. Coffin pushed himself through so hard
that he overshot and caromed off the farther wall.

Teresa laughed. She closed the door and locked it. "Just to make them
feel safe out there," she said. "Poor well-meaning men! Welcome,
captain."

* * * * *

He turned about, almost dreading the instant. Her tall form was decent
in baggy coveralls, but she had dropped the mask. She was not pretty, he
supposed: broad-faced, square-jawed, verging on spinsterhood. But he had
liked her way of smiling.

"I--" He found no words.

"Follow me." She led him down a short passage, hand-over-hand along the
null-gee rungs. "I've warned the other girls to stay away. You needn't
fear being shocked." At the end of the hall was a little partitioned-off
room. Few enough personal goods could be taken along, but she had made
this place hers, a painting, a battered Shakespeare, the works of Anker,
a microplayer. Her tapes ran to Bach, late Beethoven and Strauss, music
which could be studied endlessly. She took hold of a stanchion and
nodded, all at once grown serious.

"What do you want to ask me, captain?"

Coffin secured himself by the crook of an arm and stared at his hands.
The fingers strained against each other. "I wish I could give you a
clear reply," he said, very low and with difficulty. "You see, I've
never met anything like this before. If it involved only men, I guess I
could handle the problem. But there are women along, and children."

"And you want a fe