gradually he became aware of resilient rubber and plastic supporting him. he lay on his back, heels together and toes lopped outward, elbows crowding uncomfortably into his ribs. his body shifted. the month-long hibernation was over.
a delicious feeling of completeness—of achievement—swept over him. he, dorav brink, had escaped from the endless boredom and idleness of earth's mechanized domes, after all. here on sulle ii there would be adventure and work in plenty.
his eyes opened. in the soft yellowish light which flooded the small square room, he saw a dozen other couches, similar to that on which he lay. most of them were occupied. his gaze probed the huddled figures searching for the girl rea.
he had met her aboard the space lighter enroute to the interstellar liner that was to carry them to sulle ii. then they had been given their preliminary capsules of iberno and he remembered no more.
iberno hits some people that way—with others it takes five or six capsules to put them into the death-like cataleptic state required for star hopping....
he saw her! third couch to the right of his own. he stood up carefully, balancing on rubbery legs, and his hand went up to the constriction binding his skull. what was this? goggles! brink's fingers curled about the flexible band securing them. he tugged.
"stop that, brink!"
brink's hand fell away. he recognized the voice of len daniels, the recruiter for this illegal voyage here to sulle ii.
"want to lose your eyesight, brink?" demanded the dapper little man. "we warned you of the danger. for at least ten days your eyes must remain protected."
the little gray-haired man wore no glasses, he had acquired an immunity to the sunlight of sulle ii from former voyages, but his naturally pink-and-white complexion was a sickly yellow.
their voices roused the other colonists, and now daniels moved among them, his soft full voice admonishing and sympathetic.
a coarse-haired giant of a man, dark hair graying at the temples of his ruddy outsize features, clamped brink's fist with a huge hand.
"name's bryt carby," he said, his voice ridiculously shrill.
"i'm dorav brink." his eyes slid toward the tall slenderness of rea smyt.
"air don't taste much different from back home, brink."
brink made a wry face. "after breathing spacer air and being doped with iberno for months could we tell the difference?"
carby laughed in agreement. "but senior daniels," and brink wanted to grin at the respectful term used by the big, slow speaking man, "senior daniels says that sulle ii is like earth in almost every respect."
"he would! and possibly it is. according to him even the animals resemble our own planet's."
"once," and carby grinned widely, "i ate a bit of cooked native meat. ten credits it cost me. after that the protein packets and yea-steaks sickened me."
"i tried it once too, carby, but it cost me fifteen credits. and that's the way daniels and his company will get back the thousand credits we owe them for the trip." brink laughed. "with food that we raise and meat that we kill, carby. daniels flies it to earth and smuggles it into the domes as native to earth. his profit must be enormous."
carby frowned and rubbed a stubby finger across the bridge of his huge nose. and brink edged away from his neighbor toward the slim tallness of rea smyt.
