Rick refused point-blank to go to bed. He wasn't tired, he insisted, and
he meant it.

Scotty yielded. "Okay. I see your point. It's hard enough to sleep in
the daytime anyway, but when you're all keyed up, it's impossible.
Didn't lunch make you sleepy at all?"

"A little, but that shower and change of clothes woke me up again.
Scotty, I'll never forget that horrible instant when I realized that
Orion wasn't going to take off. Honest, it was like watching something
beautiful die. It..."

Hank Leeming, their security officer roommate, came into the bunkroom in
time to hear Rick's last comment. Hank was young, usually smiling. He
wasn't smiling now. "I was in the blockhouse when the first one blew. I
know how you feel, Rick. It makes you want to lay violent hands on the
man responsible."

The security officer changed the subject abruptly. "Luis Hermosa wants
to see the boy who saved his life, and the one who helped."

"You mean the fireman who fell in the propellant?" Scotty asked.

"That's the one. He's in the infirmary. Can you both go?"

Scotty shrugged. "Sure. If he wants us to. But he doesn't owe us
anything. Someone else would have dragged him out if we hadn't."

"If _you_ hadn't," Rick corrected. "I didn't move fast enough."

"Neither did anyone else," Hank pointed out. "Don't be overmodest about
it, Scotty. Go and see him."

The infirmary, operated by Lomac, was only a block away. Rick and Scotty
walked over and checked in at the reception desk.

The infirmary clerk directed them to one of the four rooms in the little
base hospital. "Go right in."

Luis Hermosa was awake. Rick knew he must be in pain from his burns,
which were extensive, but his smile gave no evidence of it. It was a
warm smile that demanded a smile in return.

"This morning there was no chance to give you my thanks," he greeted
them. "I asked for you to come so that you may know how I feel."

Scotty put a hand gently on one of the bandaged ones. "No thanks are
necessary."

Luis shook his head. "It was a brave thing. You might also have been
caught by the fuel, and you did not even have a suit such as I wore.
When I and my family light candles to thank God and to ask His blessing
for you, we will want to give Him your names."

They told him their names, and his lips moved as he repeated them. Then
he waved them to chairs. "Please sit down and talk with me for a few
minutes. This is not a place where one can extend the hospit