ng about visiting?"

"Then what _were_ you talking about?"

"I was talking about going back into the Crew," Alan said quietly.

The words seemed to strike Steve like physical blows. He shuddered a
little and gulped down the drink he held clutched in tobacco-stained
fingers. He looked up at Alan, finally.

"I can't. It's impossible. Flatly impossible."

"But----"

Alan felt Hawkes' foot kick him sharply under the table. He caught the
hint, and changed the subject. There was time to return to it later.

"Okay, let's skip it for now. Why don't you tell me about your life on
Earth these last nine years?"

Steve smiled sardonically. "There's not much to tell, and what there is
is a pretty dull story. I came across the bridge from the Enclave last
time the _Valhalla_ was in town, and came over into York City all set
to conquer the world, become rich and famous, and live happily ever
after. Five minutes after I set foot on the Earther side of the river I
was beaten up and robbed by a gang of roving kids. It was a real fine
start."

He signalled the waiter for another drink. "I guess I must have drifted
around the city for two weeks or more before the police found me and
picked me up for vagrancy. By that time the _Valhalla_ had long since
hoisted for Alpha C--and didn't I wish I was on it! Every night I used
to dream I had gone back on the ship. But when I woke up I always found
out I hadn't.

"The police gave me an education in the ways of Earther life, complete
with rubber hoses and stingrays, and when they were through with me I
knew all about the system of work cards and free status. I didn't have a
credit to my name. So I drifted some more. Then I got sick of drifting
and tried to find a job, but of course I couldn't buy my way in to any
of the hereditary guilds. Earth has enough people of her own; she's not
interested in finding jobs for kid spacemen who jump ship.

"So I starved a little. Then I got tired of starving. So about a year
after I first jumped ship I borrowed a thousand credits from somebody
foolish enough to lend them, and set myself up as a professional gambler
on Free Status. It was the only trade I could find that didn't have any
entrance requirements."

"Did you do well?"

"Yeah. Very well. At the end of my first six months I was fifteen
hundred credits in debt. Then my luck changed; I won three thousand
credits in a single month and got shifted up to Class B." Steve laughed
bitterly. "T