As the cameras started to sweep the area again, Colby leaned against the back of a couch. “Titus, I thought you might have been hurt in the cryo-lab. Some of your blood was found on the sheet-”

Titus felt his face pale. Before he could speak, Abbot said, “He had a nosebleed, but it stopped right away.”

Titus started to breathe again when Colby accepted that and went on talking. Silently, Titus blessed the programmer who had gimmicked the Biomed computers to identify his blood without revealing its peculiarities. Abbot was right that it wouldn’t be long until Earth’s luren could not survive unnoticed. When he came out of shock, Colby was saying “. have Titus checked for infection.”

Abbot edged Titus away from the vidcom and typed rapidly, peered at the screen, and swore as if he’d made an error, then typed some more. “Here it is,” Abbot said brightly. “Look, he’s been checked and cleared.”

Titus realized that Abbot had input that data right under Colby’s gaze. She nodded at the screen. “Good that I have a competent staff. Now, H’lim, you know that your presence is causing quite a problem-”

Mihelich said from the door opposite the bathroom, “Not as much problem as you might think, Carol.” As he advanced into ie room, Titus saw through the opening behind him a small lab designed to serve the patient in the suite. “H’lim has been very helpful so far, and as soon as he learns to read, I’m sure he’ll have a lot to teach us.”

“I’ll be very glad to do what I can to make things easier,” H’lim put in with no Influence whatsoever. Then he invoked a touch of his power as he added, “It would surely help if I could go out to see Kylyd.” He glanced at Abbot who nodded.

Colby repeated the ship’s name and H’lim explained it to her, adding, “I was escorting livestock I had designed for a new colony world. I know nothing about ships, but still I might be able to solve some puzzles for you.”

Mihelich chimed in, “That seems reasonable to me. You won’t believe what he knows! He meant ”designed` those creatures-the other species we found with him.“

To H’lim, Colby said, “We have no spacesuit for you, and the ship’s in vacuum. In a while, when they’ve built you a suit, I’m sure the engineers will be glad for any clues you can give them. Meanwhile, your first task is to regain your strength. The doctors are worried that you won’t eat.”

Mihelich explained, and Colby took the news about his diet woodenly. With no overt reaction, H’lim watched her swallow her disgust. Colby reminded Titus and Abbot of rescheduled meetings, made hasty excuses, and departed, a touch pale about the lips.

Mihelich ran fingers through his white hair and turned back to the lab. “H’lim, come look at this, and then I’ll show you more things the vidcom can do. You can tap into cameras aimed at the ship.”

H’lim followed him, glancing back once at Titus and Abbot w’th apology.

Titus gathered his Thermos disguised with the towel, and when he came out of the bathroom, Abbot said, “I’m glad to see y recovered.”

Titus went past him without stopping. “There are some things, Abbot, that you’ll never understand, but I hope you can finally grasp the fact that I do not want or need your help.” But I’d never have pulled off that trick with my medical records.

“There may come a time when I’ll believe that.”

Titus went into the shower, then returned to his apartment. Inea had gone, leaving him a note saying she’d taken the “spare calculator.” By that, he understood she had used the bugging system to tap the surveillance cameras in H’lim’s room, so she knew some of what had happened. He took his Bell and went to his lab where Inea was working at the Eighth Antenna Array console in the observatory. He signed some forms, picked up status reports, and headed to the first round of meetings after H’lim’s wakening.

As he started out the lab door, Inea came out of the observatory, yelling, “Wild Goose is alive! Wild Goose is reporting on relay through the Eighth!”

Wild Goose had, presumably, the best tracking data on Kylyd’s approach vector.

Everyone rushed into the glass enclosure, crowding aside to let Titus through. The noise was deafening. When Titus worked his way up to the screens, he saw the data relayed from one of the outer orbital observatories. “Yeah, that’s Wild Goose all right, but what is that stuff?” he asked.

“Mostly garbage,” answered Inea and thrust a set of earphones at him. “Listen.”

The technicians were arguing about what was coming in and what they could do to clean up the signal, about why the package had just started sending again, and about what to send back to get better data.

Titus handed the phones back. “I’m late, and Colby’s going to be livid. Start this through our cruncher and let me know if anything useful comes of it.” To the crowd, he announced, “This may be just what we need to nail that star! The alien, H’lim, says he knows nothing of ships, so I assume he doesnt know how to find his home star. Everything depends on us-on Wild Goose-now. Can you handle it?”

A cheer went up, and as Titus began working his way out of the observatory, they threw questions at him. “You’ve talked to it?”

“Why is it alive?”

“How could it have survived?”

“Is it really a monster like they’re saying on the news?”

“Are we all going to die of plague up here?”

Climbing the steps to the hall door, he held up his hands. “There’s no plague! H’lim is no monster, just a poor, lost castaway.” Then, feeling like a hypocrite, he added, “Maybe we can get his people to come take him home, and if that happens, we want him to report highly of us. So let’s see some level-headed competence around here, okay? I’m late for this meeting, so you get me those numbers, and I’ll find out what’s happening in Biomed and let you know. Wild Goose is alive!”

With that, he plunged out into the corridor.

It was a stormy meeting. The rumors Titus’s crew had heard were nothing compared to what the press was disseminating. Panic was overtaking Earth’s population, and already there were riots in some countries. Unsubstantiated reports indicated that some countries were funding the anti-Hail groups in open defiance of World Sovereignties law.

Colby’s orders were to get hard data, taped interviews, and biological evidence on H’lim and beam it to Earth to counter the panic. Mihelich insisted on sending along his own report on the benign microlife the alien carried. “What little there is of it. His blood is practically sterile, and his immune system’s biochemistry is virtually the same as ours.” Privately, he told Titus, “He carries antibodies I’ve never seen before, but not the corresponding organisms. Nothing about him is human, yet there’s no threat to us. Why are they so hysterical down there?”

Titus had no answer except that it was human nature to fear the unknown, which wasn’t wholly irrational. In the days that followed Inea clung to the vidcom, devouring every tidbit on him, and chafing at Titus’s inability to get her in to meet him.

But she still fed Titus willingly and abundantly, understanding that Titus was supporting H’lim until Mihelich produced orl blood.

Under the imposed quarantine, deliveries to the station were now to be made by drop rather than by surface, so that crews would not stay overnight at the station. This cut the tonnage they could transport, so all requisitions were doubly scrutinized. Mihelich would not receive anything to support cloning, and Titus might not get Connie’s new blood chips. Every report he filed with her mentioned the restrictions and his dwindling supply, but she only acknowledged, reminding him their channel was not secure from the Tourists.

Titus scoured his hardware for any bug Abbot might have planted and found none. Any leak was on the ground.

During the frantic days after H’lim’s wakening, Titus hardly slept. In the lunar night, and with Inea supporting him, he had the stamina. He even squeezed in frequent visits to H’lim, both under the cameras and privately. He was present when the luren’s eyes were examined, and learned that Earth’s luren had lost sensitivity in the visible spectrum. Luren had not only the three sensitivity peaks that humans had, but also a number of infrared and ultraviolet peaks. Luren skin responded to the electromagnetic presense of human bodies. When one of the engineers presented H’lim with a pair of goggles to allow him to use station lighting, he told her, “All the colors seem odd, but I do thank you.