"Good Lord, you seem in an awful hurry. When do I see my counsel?"

"You needn't be examined so soon, if you object. Who is your counsel? I'll have him sent in."

"I don't know any."

"Very well. I'll assign one." He touched a button and Perry was shown out. In the course of the next two hours he was assigned to a room (cheerful, clean, reasonably comfortable), given a card of special customs to read, weighed, measured, photographed, blood tests made, fluoroscoped, metabolic rate checked, and a dozen other items of clinical examination performed. When he was finally back in his room, tired and extremely confused, he sat down and tried to order his thoughts.

The door light glowed and an attendant entered, grinned and uttered the formal, "Service."

"Service," answered Perry. "What do you want?"

"Here's your menu. Check off what you want. You wanta eat here or in the refectory?"

"Here, I guess. Say, what is this joint; a hotel, a jail, or a hospital?"

"It's a detention center. Say, ain't everything been all right? You want anything?"

"No, thanks. Can I televue someplace? I need to get a message out."

"Sure, it's in that panel there by the window."

"Thanks." The attendant left and Perry tried to call Diana. There was no answer. He tried a second time and desisted to answer the door light. Diana stood in the door. Presently she disentangled her arms from about his neck and he saw that she was accompanied. Her companion was a spare intellectual man of about thirty-five who greeted Perry cordially. Diana introduced them.

"Perry, this is Master Joseph. He's here to help you. He's your counsel."

"Well, young fellow, if what Diana tells me can be considered as objectively correct, you have one of the strangest cases I've ever dealt with." In a few minutes Master Joseph had put Perry at ease and had drawn out of him the salient details of the event that had landed him where he now was. Then he inquired into the past few weeks of his life and the incredible story of his renascence. The talk turned to Perry's life in the twentieth century. Master Joseph seemed to have an inexhaustible curiosity concerning the social customs of that period, the beliefs men lived by, and Perry's opinions of the mores of both periods. While they talked, Perry's dinner arrived and he expressed embarrassment that he could not invite them to eat. Joseph answered that he could, if he wished, and signaled the attendant. After dinner the talk continued. Perry asked him what his chances were. Joseph considered this.

"Well, you are undoubtedly in violation of a basic custom. The Court will be sure to find affirmatively."

"What's the punishment?"

"Punishment?" Joseph's eyebrows raised. "There is no punishment. You have several serious psychological blockages and you will be requested to submit to treatment."

"What kind of treatment?"

"I don't know. Whatever your attending psychiatrists prescribe."

"Psychiatrists? What the hell? Do you think I'm crazy?"

"No, but I think you are badly in need of reorientation by psychiatry."

"What does a lawyer know of psychiatry?"

"I'm not a lawyer. I'm a psychiatrist."

"Then why were you sent to me as counsel?"

"Lawyers aren't private counsels. Those in court work are technical assistants to the court. I'll get one to see you if you wish, but he probably won't be much help. A lawyer is likely to regard any irregularity as most irregular—which it is of course." He grinned. "My advice is not to worry and get a good night's sleep. I'll order a sedative for you. No, Diana, you'd better not stay tonight. I want him to rest." He arose to go and studied the evening sky through the window while Perry and Diana said good night.

Shortly after breakfast Perry was interviewed at length by a board of five psychiatrists. Joseph was present and facilitated the work. The talk seemed inconsequential. At one point one of them engaged him in an animated discussion of the effect of the invention of flying on the logistic problem in warfare. For some reason the others seemed to follow this discussion with interest. Another inquired into some details of customs or 'rates' observed by midshipmen, and as to what extent a midshipman's life differed socially from that of a civilian student. By lunch time they seemed satisfied and adjourned.

Perry's trial was set for fourteen o'clock. It turned out to be anticlimactic. On counsel's advice he stipulated the facts in the complaint and requested a trial without jury. The examining judge found affirmatively and read the findings of the psychiatric board. Then he spoke to Perry:

"Young man, according to the board you are for all practical purposes unacquainted with our customs in the field of social correction. In the terms you are familiar with you have been found guilty and I am about to pass sentence. In other terms familiar to you, you have been diagnosed and found to be sick and I am about to prescribe for your illness. You don't have to take your medicine unless you want to, but I hope you will. The findings of the board are encouraging if somewhat startling, and I think you will have a complete recovery."

"May it please the Court?"

"May it what? Oh yes, surely. Go ahead."

"What is the alternative to taking treatment?"

"The alternative is Coventry, by which I mean that you will be delivered to the gate of a reservation set aside for non-cooperative individuals, along with your credit turned into any chattels you choose. Or, if you prefer, you may emigrate to any country willing to receive you."

"What happens if I enter Coventry?"

"You must enter the gate. What happens thereafter is no concern of the state."

"How long must I stay in the reservation?"

The judge shrugged his shoulders and did not reply.

"I'll take treatment. I was simply curious about the other."

"Very good. I see from the report that certain typical moral reactions may be expected from you with a general classification of aristocratic. Do you recognize my authority?"

"Yes, Your Honor."

"I am going to ask you to make me a promise. You need not if you prefer not to. I want you to promise that you will refrain from doing any violence to any person whatsoever including yourself for any reason whatsoever until you are pronounced cured or until you come to me and tell me that you withdraw your word. Will you do it?"

"That's fair enough. I promise."

"Good. I want to parole you to someone not in need of treatment himself. Who is your next friend?"

Perry looked disconcerted. "Why, I don't believe I have any." As he spoke, Diana stepped forward. The judge smiled.

"Is she your next friend?" They both nodded. "Very well then, you must understand that she is responsible to me that the instructions of this court are carried out." He turned to Diana. "Take him to the State Correction Hospital at Tahoe. The Chief Clerk will help you with the details. That's all. Goodbye and good luck."

In the air car Diana set the controls and turned to Perry with anxious concern in her eyes. "Well, darling, how do you feel?"

Perry considered this. "I don't know. I was braced for a pretty unpleasant outcome, but I've been treated very decently. On the other hand I have to go off someplace away from you and submit to treatment of indefinite duration and unknown sort. It's humiliating and I don't feel happy about it. I don't like to be regarded as crazy because I know that I am not."

Diana patted his hand. "Nobody thinks you are crazy, darling. They think that you are suffering from bad emotional reactions through faulty training. Now they will attempt to re-train you so that you can be happy."

He grasped her fiercely. "Do those fools think that they can train me out of loving you with a bunch of fancy phrases?"