It was more than blindness. A blind man, a man whose eyes have lost their function, at least remembers what things looked like. A man whose optic brain center has been damaged doesn't. I could remember what I'd come out here for — to find out if there were masses near enough to harm us — but I couldn't remember how to do it. I touched a curved glass surface and knew that this was the machine that would tell me, if only I knew its secret.

Eventually my neck got sore, so I moved my head. That brought my eyes back into existence.

When we got the bubble pressurized, Elephant said, «Where were you? You've been gone half an hour.»

«And lucky at that. When you go out there, don't look up.»

«Oh.»

That was the other half of the problem. Elephant and I had stopped communicating. He was not interested in saying anything, and he was not interested in anything I had to say.

It took me a good week to figure out why. Then I braced him with it.

«Elephant, there's a word missing from our language.»

He looked up from the reading screen. If there hadn't been a reading screen in the bubble, I don't think we'd have made it. «More than one word,» he said. «Things have been pretty silent.»

«One word. You're so afraid of using that word, you're afraid to talk at all.»

«So tell me.»

«Coward.»

Elephant wrinkled his brows, then snapped off the screen. «All right, Bey, we'll talk about it. First of all, you said it, I didn't. Right?»

«Right. Have you been thinking it?»

«No. I've been thinking euphemisms like 'overcautious' and 'reluctance to risk bodily harm. But since we're on the subject, why were you so eager to turn back?»

«I was scared.» I let that word soak into him, then went on. «The people who trained me made certain that I'd be scared in certain situations. With all due respect, Elephant, I've had more training for space than you have. I think your wanting to land was the result of ignorance.»

Elephant sighed. «I think it would have been safe to land. You don't. We're not going to get anywhere arguing about it, are we?»

We weren't. One of us was right, one wrong. And if I was wrong, then a pretty good friendship had gone out the air lock.

It was a silent trip.

We came out of hyperspace near the two Sirius suns. But that wasn't the end of it, because we still faced a universe squashed by relativity. It took us almost two weeks to brake ourselves. The gravity drag's radiator fin glowed orange-white for most of that time. I have no idea how many times we circled around through hyperspace for another run through the system.

Finally we were moving in on Jinx with the fusion drive.

I broke a silence of hours. «Now what, Elephant?»

«As soon as we get in range, I'm going to call that number of yours.»

«Then?»

«Drop you off at Sirius Mater with enough money to get you home. I'd take it kindly if you'd use my house as your own until I come back from Cannonball Express. I'll buy a ship here and go back.»

«You don't want me along.»

«With all due respect, Bey, I don't. I'm going to land. Wouldn't you feel like a damn fool if you died then?»

«I've spent about three months in a small extension bubble because of that silly planet. If you conquered it alone, I would feel like a damn fool.»

Elephant looked excruciatingly unhappy. He started to speak, caught his breath –

If ever I picked the right time to shut a man up, that was it.

«Hold it. Let's call the puppeteers first. Plenty of time to decide.»

Elephant nodded. In a moment he'd have told me he didn't want me along because I was overcautious. Instead, he picked up the ship phone.

Jinx was a banded Easter egg ahead of us. To the side was Binary, the primary to which Jinx is a moon. We should be close enough to talk … and the puppeteers' transfer-booth number would also be their phone number.

Elephant dialed.

A sweet contralto voice answered. There was no picture, but I could tell: no woman's voice is quite that good. The puppeteer said, «Eight eight three two six seven seven oh.»

«My General Products hull just failed.» Elephant was wasting no time at all.

«I beg your pardon?»

«My name is Gregory Pelton. Twelve years ago I bought a No. 2 hull from General Products. A month and a half ago it failed. We've spent the intervening time limping home. May I speak to a puppeteer?»

The screen came on. Two flat, brainless heads looked out at us. «This is quite serious,» said the puppeteer. «Naturally we will pay the indemnity in full. Would you mind detailing the circumstances?»

Elephant didn't mind at all. He was quite vehement. It was a pleasure to listen to him. The puppeteer's silly expressions never wavered, but he was blinking rapidly when Elephant finished.

«I see,» he said. «Our apologies are insufficient, of course, but you will understand that it was a natural mistake. We did not think that antimatter was available anywhere in the galaxy, especially in such quantity.»

It was as if he'd screamed. I could hear that word echoing from side to side in my skull.

Elephant's booming voice was curiously soft. «Antimatter?»

«Of course. We have no excuse, of course, but you should have realized it at once. Interstellar gas of normal matter had polished the planet's surface with minuscule explosions, had raised the temperature of the protosun beyond any rational estimate, and was causing a truly incredible radiation hazard. Did you not even wonder about these things? You knew that the system was from beyond the galaxy. Humans are supposed to be highly curious, are they not?»

«The hull,» said Elephant.

«A General Products hull is an artificially generated molecule with interatomic bonds artificially strengthened by a small power plant. The strengthened molecular bonds are proof against any kind of impact and heat into the hundreds of thousands of degrees. But when enough of the atoms had been obliterated by antimatter explosions, the molecule naturally fell apart.»

Elephant nodded. I wondered if his voice was gone for good.

«When may we expect you to collect your indemnity? I gather no human was killed; this is fortunate, since our funds are low.»

Elephant turned off the phone. He gulped once or twice, then turned to look me in the eye. I think it took all his strength, and if I'd waited for him to speak, I don't know what he would have said.

«I gloat,» I said. «I gloat. I was right; you were wrong. If we'd landed on your forsaken planet, we'd have gone up in pure light. At this time it gives me great pleasure to say, I Told You So.»

He smiled weakly. «You told me so.»

«Oh, I did, I did. Time after time I said, Don't Go Near That Haunted Planet! It's Worth Your Life And Your Soul, I said. There Have Been Signs in the Heavens, I said, To Warn Us from This Place —»

«All right, don't overdo it, you bastard. You were dead right all the way. Let's leave it at that.»

«Okay. But there's one thing I want you to remember.»

«If you don't understand it, it's dangerous.»

«That's the one thing I want you to remember besides I Told You So.»

And that should have ended it.

But it doesn't. Elephant's going back. He's got a little flag with a UN insignia, about two feet by two feet, with spring wires to make it look like it's flapping in the breeze, and a solid rocket in the handle so it'll go straight when the flag is furled. He's going to drop it on the antimatter planet from a great height, as great as I can talk him into.

It should make quite a bang.

And I'm going along. I've got a solidly mounted tridee camera and a contract with the biggest broadcasting company in known space. This time I've got a reason for going!