And the rest of the pantropists were just as bad. As pas-
sengers with the technical status of human beings, they could
go almost anywhere in the ship that the crew could goand
they did, persistantly and unapologetically, as though moving
among equals. Legally, that was what ‘they werebut didn’t
they know by this time that there was such a thing as preju-
dice? And that among common spacemen the prejudice
against their kindand against any Adapted Manalways
hovered near the borderline of bigotry?
There was a slight hum as Averdor’s power chair swung
around to face the Captain. Like most Rigellian men, the lieu-
tenant’s face was lean and harsh, almost like that of an an-
cient religious fanatic, and the starlight in the greenhouse hid
nothing to soften it; but to Capt. Gorbel, to whom it was fa-
miliar down to its last line, it looked especially forbidding
now.
“Well?” he said.
“I’d think you’d be fed to the teeth with that freak by this
time,” Averdor said without preamble. “Something’s got to be
done. Captain, before the crew gets so surly that we have to
start handing out brig sentences.”
“I don’t like know-it-alls any better than you do,” Gorbel
said grimly. “Especially when they talk nonsenseand half of
what this one says about space flight is nonsense, that much
I’m sure of. But the man’s a delegate of the Council. He’s got
a right to be up here if he wants to.”
“You can bar anybody from the greenhouse in an emer-
gencyeven the ship’s officers.”
“I fail to see any emergency,” Gorbel said stiffly.
“This is a hazardous part of the galazypotentially, any-