"Face up to it, yes," I agreed. "But not grow calloused. Deety, I've seen too

many men die. I've never grown inured to it. One must accept death, learn not to fear it, then never worry about it. 'Make Today Count!' as a friend whose days are numbered told me. Live in that spirit and when death comes, it will come as a welcome friend."

"You say much what my mother told me before she died."

"Your mother must have been an extraordinary woman. Deety, in the two weeks I've known you, I've heard so much about her from all three of you that I feel as if I knew her. A friend I hadn't seen lately. She sounds like a wise woman."

"I think she was, Zebadiah. Certainly she was good. Sometimes, when I have a hard choice, I ask myself, 'What would Mama do?'-and everything falls into place."

"Both good and wise... and her daughter shows it. Uh, how old are you, Deety?"

"Does it matter, sir?"

"No. Curiosity."

"I wrote my birth date on our marriage license application."

"Beloved, my head was spinning so hard that I had trouble remembering my own. But I should not have asked-women have birthdays, men have ages. I want to know your birthday; I have no need to know the year."

"April twenty-second, Zebadiah-one day older than Shakespeare."

"Age could not wither her-' Woman, you carry your years well."

"Thank you, sir."

"That snoopy question came from having concluded in my mind that you were twenty-six....iguring from the fact that you have a doctor's degree. Although you look younger."

"I think twenty-six is a satisfactory age."

"I wasn't asking," I said hastily. "I got confused from knowing Hilda's age... then hearing her say that she is-or claims to be-twenty years older than you. It did not jibe with my earlier estimate, based on your probable age on graduating from high school plus your two degrees."

Jake and Hilda had lingered at the pool while Jake washed his hands and rinsed from his body smears of alien ichor. Being less burdened, they climbed the path faster than we and came up behind us just as Deety answered,

"Zebadiah, I never graduated from high school."

"That's right," agreed her father. "Deety matriculated by taking College Boards. At fourteen. No problem since she stayed home and didn't have to live in a dorm. Got her B.S. in three years... and that was a happy thing, as Jane lived to see Deety move the tassel from one side of her mortar board to the other. Jane in a wheelchair and happy as a child-her doctor said it couldn't hurt her....eaning she was dying anyhow." He added, "Had her mother been granted only three more years she could have seen Deety's doctorate conferred, two years ago."

"Pop... sometimes you chatter."

"Did I say something out of line?"

"No, Jake," I assured him. "But I've just learned that I robbed the cradle. I knew I had but hadn't realized how much. Deety darling, you are twentytwo."

"Is twenty-two an unsatisfactory age?"

"No, my Princess. Just right."

"My Captain said that women have birthdays while men have ages. Is it permitted to inquire your age, sir? I didn't pay close attention to that form we had to fill out, either."

I answered solemnly. "But Dejah Thoris knows that Captain John Carter is centuries old, cannot recall his childhood, and has always looked thirty years old."

"Zebadiah, if that is your age, you've had a busy thirty years. You said you left home when you graduated from high school, worked your way through college, spent three years on active duty, then worked your way through a doctor's degree-"

"A phony one!"

"That doesn't reduce required residence. Aunt Hilda says you've been a professor four years."

"Uh... will you settle for nine years older than you are?"

"I'll settle for whatever you say."

"He's at it again," put in Sharpie. "He was run off two other campuses. Coed scandals. Then he found that in California nobody cared, so he moved west."

I tried to look hurt. "Sharpie darling, I always married them. One gal turned out already to be married and in the other case the child wasn't mine; she slipped one over on me."

"The truth isn't in him, Deety. But he's brave and he bathes every day and he's rich-and we love him anyhow."

"The truth isn't in you either, Aunt Hilda. But we love you anyhow. It says in 'Little Women' that a bride should be half her husband's age plus seven years. Zebadiah and I hit close to that."

"A rule that makes an old hag out of me. Jacob, I'm just Zebbie's age- thirty-one. But we've both been thirty-one for ages."

"I'll bet he does feel aged after carrying that thing uphill. Atlas, can you support your burden while I get the garage open, a bench dragged out and covered? Or shall I help you put it down?"

"I'd just have to pick it up again. But don't dally."

"-citizens must protect themselves."

Zeb:

I felt better after I got that "ranger's" corpse dumped and the garage door closed, everyone indoors. I had told Hilda that I felt no "immediate" danger- but my wild talent does not warn me until the Moment of Truth. The "Blokes in the Black Hats" had us located. Or possibly had never lost us; what applies to human gangsters has little to do with aliens whose powers and motives and plans we had no way to guess.

We might be as naive as a kitten who thinks he is hidden because his head is, unaware that his little rump sticks out.

They were alien, they were powerful, they were multiple (three thousand? three million?-we didn't know the Number of the Beast)-and they knew where we were. True, we had killed one-by luck, not by planning. That "ranger" would be missed; we could expect more to call in force.

Foolhardiness has never appealed to me. Given a chance to run, I run. I don't mean I'll bug out on wing mate when the unfriendlies show up, and certainly not on a wife and unborn child. But I wanted us all to run-me, my wife, my blood brother who was also my father-in-law, and his wife, my chum Sharpie who was brave, practical, smart, and unsqueamish (that she would joke in the jaws of Moloch was not a fault but a source of esprit).

I wanted us to go!-Tau axis, Teh axis, rotate, translate, whatever-anywhere not infested by gruesomes with green gore.

I checked the gauge and felt better; Gay's inner pressure had not dropped. ~'oo much to expect Gay to be a spaceship-not equipped to scavenge and

replenish air. But it was pleasant to know that she would hold pressure much longer than it would take us to scram for home if we had to-assuming that unfriendlies had not shot holes in her graceful shell.

I went by the inside passageway into the cabin, used soap and hot water, rinsed off and did it again, dried down and felt clean enough to kiss my wife, which I did. Deety held onto me and reported.

"Your kit is packed, sir. I'm finishing mine, the planned weight and space, and nothing but practical clothes-"

"Sweetheart."

"Yes, Zebadiah?"

"Take the clothes you were married in and mine too. Same for Jake and Hilda. And your father's dress uniform. Or was it burned in Logan?"

"But, Zebadiah, you emphasized rugged clothes."

"So I did. To keep your mind on the fact that we can't guess the conditions we'll encounter and don't know how long we'll be gone or if we'll be back. So I listed everything that might be useful in pioneering a virgin planet-since we might be stranded and never get home. Everything from Jake's microscope and water-testing gear to technical manuals and tools. And weapons-and flea powder. But it's possible that we will have to play the roles of ambassadors for humanity at the court of His Extreme Majesty, Overlord of Galactic Empires in thousandth-and-third continuum. We may need the gaudiest clothes we can whip up. We don't know, we can't guess."