The thought faltered. It was hard to bear in mind that there were very few
passengers any more. They bad outnumbered the crew enormously at the start,
he seemed to recall. But somehow they had failed to breed, in anything like
sufficient numbers. Odd, when you thought about it; what else had they had
to do?
There were not very many people in the control barrel, and of these Jorn
and Ailiss recognized only two: their daughter Kasi and her new husband, a
hard-voiced, cock-sure youngster whom Jorn could barely stand. Ailiss
seemed to be able to put up with him a little better, if only for Kasi’s
sake. He had been in training to be Kamblin’s replacement at the time of
the latter’s death, but how much astronomy he actualIy knew was an open
question. Hearing him talk, in that arrogant, know-it-all voice of his,
Jorn sometimes got the fleeting impression that he did not think of stars
as being real objects at all, but only dots with certain arbitrary
properties which he had been forced to learn by rote. His name was Monel.
He did not appear to be so cock-sure at the
172 James Blish
moment, however. Like everyone else in the barrel, he was standing at his
post but not doing anything, his glance going from the door of Ertak’s
quarters, to the computer, and back again to the door.
The door did not open.
“How long has this been going on?” Jorn demanded.
“About five minutes, Father,” Kasi said.
“Tbat’s already too long. If the Director doesn1 appear in another five,
we’ll have to take action ourselves.” The decision came out with great