body for special autopsy instead of the usual
immediate cremation. Then we simply drove till we reached the
stratorocket we'd arranged to have ready, and you were flown to our
spaceboat, and now you're on the way back to the station. You were kept
under drugs most of the way to help you rest--they'd knocked you around
quite a bit in the inquisitory. So--" Berg shrugged. "Pappas can't go
back to Earth now, of course, but we can always use a medic in space,
and it was well worth the trouble to rescue you."

"I'm honored," said Lancaster.

"I still feel like hell about what happened to you, though."

"It's all right. I can't say I enjoyed it, but now that I've learned
some hard facts--oh, well, forget the painful nature of the lesson. I'll
be okay. And I'm going home!"

* * * * *

Jessup supported Lancaster as they entered the space station. His old
crew was there waiting to greet him. They were all immensely pleased to
have him back, though Karen wept bitterly on his shoulder.

"It's all right," he told her. "I'm not in such bad shape as I look.
Honest, Karen, I'm all right. And now that I have gotten back, and know
where I really belong--damn, but it was worth it!"

She looked at him with eyes as gray as a rainy dawn. "And you are with
us?" she whispered. "You're one of us? Of your own will?"

"Of course I am. Give me a week or two to rest, and I'll be back in the
lab bossing all of you like a Simon Legree. Hell, we've just begun on
that super-dielectricity. And there are a lot of other things I want to
try out, too."

"It means exile," she said. "No more blue skies and green valleys and
ocean winds. No more going back to Earth."

"Well, there are other planets, aren't there? And we'll go back to Earth
in the next decade, I bet. Back to start a new American Revolution and
write the Bill of Rights in the sky for all to see." Lancaster grinned
shyly. "I'm not much at making speeches, and I certainly don't like to
listen to them. But I've learned the truth and I want to say it out
loud. The right of man to be free is the most basic one he's got, and
when he gives that up he finishes by surrendering everything else too.
You people are fighting to bring back honesty and liberty and the
possibility of progress. I hope nobody here is a fanatic, because
fanaticism is exactly what we're fighting against. I say we, because
from now on I'm one of you. That is, if you're sure you want me."