Brotherhood
of Man. At two months per planet, not figuring transit time, it would
take more than a thousand Galactic Standard years to visit them all, and
a man could look forward to scarcely more than five hundred at best. The
habitat of Man had become too large. There wasn't time to explore every
possibility.

But a man could have certain standards, and look until he found a
position that fitted. The trouble was--if the standards were too high
the jobs were too scarce. Despite the chronic shortage of veterinarians
throughout the Brotherhood, there was a peculiar reluctance on the part
of established practitioners to welcome recent graduates. Most of the
ads in the professional journals read "State salary desired," which was
nothing more than economic blackmail--a bald-faced attempt to get as
much for as little as possible. Kennon grimaced wryly. He'd be damned if
he'd sell his training for six thousand a year. Slave labor, that's what
it was. There were a dozen ads like that in the Journal. Well, he'd give
them a trial, but he'd ask eight thousand and full GEA benefits. Eight
years of school and two more as an intern were worth at least that.

He pulled the portable voicewrite to a comfortable position in front of
the view wall and began composing another of the series of letters that
had begun months ago in time and parsecs away in space. His voice was a
fluid counterpoint to the soft hum of the machine.

And as he dictated, his eyes took in the vista through the view
wall. Albertsville was a nice town, too young for slums, too new for
overpopulation. The white buildings were the color of winter butter in
the warm yellow sunlight as the city drowsed in the noonday heat. It
nestled snugly in the center of a bowl-shaped valley whose surrounding
forest clad hills gave mute confirmation to the fact that Kardon
was still primitive, an unsettled world that had not yet reached the
explosive stage of population growth that presaged maturity. But that
was no disadvantage. In fact, Kennon liked it. Living could be fun on a
planet like this.

It was abysmally crude compared to Beta, but the Brotherhood had opened
Kardon less than five hundred years ago, and in such a short time one
couldn't expect all the comforts of civilization.

It required a high population density to supply them, and while Kardon
was integrated its population was scarcely more than two hundred
million. It would be some time yet before this world woul