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parents at the stocktaking assembly tomorrow. But it still stands at the moment. And, as you agree, Delvia is not the sort of person who’d be suitable. We can’t have people flouting our collective decisions, can we?”
    “Of course not.”
    “So I’ve been wondering whether we oughtn’t to establish a precedent by imposing a compulsory abortion on her”
    Ornelle was silent for a moment. “Are you asking for my personal opinion?” she said eventually. “Or are you asking what the reaction of the other women is likely to be?”
    “Both.”
    “Well… I think most of us would agree that you can’t have people disregarding the rules, and particularly since Delvia is—uh—not too popular, you’d have no trouble getting such a motion carried.”
    “Speaking for yourself, though?”
    Ornelle closed her eyes. “If our stay here is likely to be for good, I’d hate to think it had been marred by that sort of thing right at the start. Besides, that was one of the things that made the winter so intolerable: losing the babies. Having children around is part of life for me—an indispensable part. And since you say you were planning to recommend starting some pregnancies…”
    “Yes.” Jerode rubbed his chin. “If this were anyone but Delvia I’d be inclined to overlook it. I still could. I doubt if she knows herself yet; it’s only five or six days gone. But, as you say, she must have been careless, or else she was defying a rule she doesn’t approve of. Bothare dangerous trends, aren’t they? Especially in such a forceful personality.”
    “A compulsory abortion, though… I’ll have to think about it, I’m afraid.”
    “Please do. We’re having a preliminary committee meeting at dark this evening. I’d like you to come to it and tell us your conclusions, all right?”
    “Yes, of course.” And she added as he turned to the door: “Doc, did you have children—back home?”
    “Yes. And I know you did too. Which is why I came to consult you.”

IV

    Lex slipped into the water, feeling extraordinarily distant from it because the spacesuit he was wearing insulated him so efficiently. To be in water without feeling its coolness was disconcerting. He hadn’t remarked the fact during the dives he had done last year, but his mind had been taken up by other things. He had been searching for Bendle’s son; on the first dive he had found him, on the second recovered the body—or rather, what was left of it. It had been no consolation at all to see that the hungry marine beasts which had nibbled at his flesh were still clinging, discolored and dying, because some compound in human protoplasm was poisoning them.
    He drew a deep breath, conscious that thinking such morbid thoughts would handicap the speed of his reactions, and caught at the anchor cable so that he could pause before reaching the bottom and take proper stock of his surroundings.
    The silver egg-form of the ship seemed to be about one-third buried. The seabed, for a considerable distance from shore, was composed of the same relatively firm greenish sand as the beach, but out here it was slack and muddy, carpeted with a mass of juicy weed, and the hull had sunk deep. In the wan, diffuse light he could not tell whether the occasional movements he detected among thefronded aquatic plants were due to currents, or whether animal-life was hiding among the branches.
    There were no openings to the ship except the locks: two for the crew, two much larger ones for cargo. He could just discern the top
of
an open cargo lock on this side of the hull, above the level of the vegetation. That was fortunate. He could enter through there and probably conduct quite an extensive exploration, though sand and mud would doubtless have sifted over much of the gear inside.
    For a moment a stab of anger against fate made him clench his teeth. As though it weren’t bad enough to be stranded on an unknown planet with only the basic resources of a space-freighter and some