at wherever you go, there goes the honor of Mankind. Do not,
above all, betray that honor."

Carnahan clenched his teeth in bitterness. He wished old fatty Winthrop
had come with them. Savagely he upended the gourd and flung it across
the room. It meant a trip to Bailey's hut to get it replenished. Bailey
had been the Chief Physicist. Now he was the official distiller, and the
rotgut he produced was the only thing that made existence bearable.

The Captain stared again at his own image. "Captain Louis Carnahan," he
murmured aloud. "The pick of Earth's finest--!" He smashed a fist at the
little metal mirror and sent it flying across the room. The table
crashed over, one feeble leg twisting brokenly. Then Carnahan hunched
over with his face buried against the bed. His fists beat against it
while his shoulders jerked in familiar, drunken sobs.

After it was over he raised up, sitting on the edge of the bed. His mind
burned with devastating clarity. It seemed for once he could remember
everything that had ever happened to him. He remembered it all. He
remembered his childhood under the bright, pleasant sky of Earth. He
remembered his ambition to be a soldier, which meant spaceman, even
then. He remembered his first flight, a simple training tour of the Moon
installations. It convinced him that never again could he consider
himself an Earthman in the sense of one who dwells upon the Earth. His
realm was the sky and the stars. Not even the short period when he had
allowed himself to be in love had changed his convictions. He had
sacrificed everything his career demanded.

Where had it gone wrong? How could he have allowed himself to forget?
For years he had forgotten, he realized in horror. He had forgotten that
Earth existed. He had forgotten how he came to be here, and why. And all
that he was meant to accomplish had gone undone. For years the
scientific work of the great base expedition had been ignored. Only the
little biologist across the way, pecking at his tasks season after
season, had accomplished anything.

And now the ships were coming to demand an accounting.

He groaned aloud as the vision became more terrible. He thought of that
day when they had arrived at the inhospitable and uninhabited world of
Serrengia. He could close his eyes and see it again--the four tall ships
standing on the plateau that was scarred by their landing. The men had
been so proud of what they had done and would yet do. They could see