She waited. I said hastily, "No. Perhaps it will be best for me to watch in all directions. General supervision."

"Very well, Captain. Copilot-execute."

Again we rotated into darkness. Deety switched out all lights. Zeb reported, "Set!"

"Stop!" I called out. I added, "Zeb, you reported 'Set' in total darkness. How did you set it?"

"Rotation around 'z' axis, with 'x' and 'y' dropping out. Duration along Teh. Third combo first group, sir."

"I mean, 'How did you do it in darkness?' By clicks?"

"Captain, I didn't do it in darkness."

I said, "It was pitch dark when you reported 'Set."

"So it was, Captain."

"It's not necessary to call me 'Captain' every ten seconds. I want a straight answer. So far you have reported that you set it in darkness and that you set it with lights on."

"No, sir."

"God damn it, you just did!"

"Captain, I protest your swearing at me. I request that my protest be logged."

"Zeb, you are-" I shut up. I counted thirty in French under my breath, by which time I was ready to speak. "Zeb, I'm sorry that my language offended you. But I am still trying to find out what you did and how. Will you please tell me, in simple language?"

"Yes, sir. I set the third rotation by clicks-"

"But you said the lights were on-"

"The lights were on. I set the rotation with my eyes closed-"

"For God's sake, why?"

"For practice. I set them with eyes closed. Then I check to see whether it matches what I intended to set. Deety leaves the light on until I give her the 'kill it' sign. Then she kills the glim and does her act."

"Zeb, there wasn't time to do it that way."

Zeb gave a most irritating grin. "Captain, I'm fairly quick. So is Deety." I said, "Perhaps I had better check the setting."

Zeb made no answer; both women kept still. I began to wonder what everyone was waiting on... then realized that I was the "what." Unbelt and check

on Zeb's setting? I remembered that irritating grin. So I said, "Deety, carry out the tumbling routine."

The somersault completed, I asked, "Anyone see anything?" Hilda said, "I... think so. Captain, could we do that again?" "Do it, Deety," I ordered.

Pigeon-Tumble resumed; Hilda suddenly said, "There!" and Deety snapped, "GayDeceiverStop!"

I asked, "Hilda, do you still see it?"

"Yes, Jacob. A fuzzy star. You can see it if I pull back and you lean forward."

I suppose we each did so-for I spotted something. "I see it! Zeb-the binoculars, please."

An invisible hand pushed them against my neck. I got them lined up with difficulty, got that faint light, focused with great care. "It looks like a lenticular galaxy seen not quite edge on. Or it might be a family of galaxies. Whatever it is, it is a long way off. Millions of light-years-I have no way of guessing."

"Can we reach it by transition?" asked Zeb.

"Possibly. I would set middle range on 'six,' then keep punching until it showed change in width. It might be possible to reach it in an hour or so. Do you want to look at it?"

"From your description, I don't think so," Zeb answered. "That is fossil light-isn't it?"

"Eh? Yes, the light has been traveling for millions of years."

"That's my point, Captain. We might find that those stars had burned out. Fossil light doesn't tell us anything we can use. Let's designate this 'Last Chance' and get out."

Eminently sensible- "Stand by to rotate. Copilot-execute!"

Blinding light- "Zeb! Rotate! Execute!"

Suddenly we were in a starry void, almost homelike. I heaved a sigh of relief. "Zeb, what did we fall into?"

"I don't know, Captain." He added, "I had my eyes closed, setting the next rotation by clicks. So I didn't get dazzled. But I never had a chance to check my setting by eyesight, either; I rotated at once."

"You got us out-thanks. I did get dazzled; I've got purple blotches in front of my eyes. New standing order: At each rotation all hands close eyes and duck heads for that moment needed to be sure that we have not again run into dazzle. Zeb, that need not slow you up since you are setting by touch and click anyhow-but if we do hit dazzle, rotate us out; don't wait for my orders. And-All Hands!-we are all free at all times to use any of the escape programs to get us out of danger."

"Next rotation set, Captain."

"Thank you, Copilot. Hilda, do you or Deety have any notion as to what we fell into?"

"No, Captain," my daughter answered.

"Captain Jacob, I have three hypotheses, none worth much."

"Let others judge that, my dear."

"Interior of a glObal star cluster-or near the nucleus of a galaxy, or-

possibly-the early part of an expanding universe when new stars are almost rubbing shoulders."

"Hmm- Real garden spots. Zeb, could we have picked up excessive radiation?"

"Captain, the shell of this buggy is opaque to most radiation, and that windscreen is heavily leaded-but no way to tell."

"Zebadiah, if the film in the camera is ruined, some heavy stuff got through. If the next picture is okay, we're probably okay."

Hilda said, "I'm glad you thought of that, Deety. I don't like the idea of radiation while I'm pregnant. You, too, hon."

"Aunt Hilda, we're almost completely shielded where it matters. It could addle our brains but not our bellies."

"Hilda, do you wish to shoot one frame?" I asked.

"No, Jacob, it would waste film."

"As you wish. My eyes are coming back. Deety, put us through one PigeonTumble."

My daughter did so; I saw nothing. "Report! Hilda?"

"Lots of big beautiful stars but nothing close."

"Me, too, Pop-but what a beautiful sky!"

"Null report, Captain."

"Hilda, mark it down as 'promising.' All hands, stand by for fifth rotation. Keep eyes closed and heads down. Execute!"

Zeb gasped. "Where in Hell are we?"

"In Hell, maybe, Zebbie."

"Captain!"

"Hilda may not be too far off," I answered. "It's something I could not have believed three weeks ago: some sort of inside-out universe."

"Pellucidar!" said Deety.

"No, my dear daughter. One: We are not inside our home planet; we are in another universe. Two: This universe has physical laws that differ from our own. The inside of a spherical shell cannot have a gravitational field by the laws of our universe. Yet I see a river and we seem to be falling toward it. Deety, are we in air or in vacuo?"

Deety wiggled the controls. "Got some air. Probably could get support with wings fully spread."

"Then do so." Deety brought the car into a dead-stick glide.

Zeb said grimly, "I don't want to homestead here! So big-ten thousand kilometers across at a guess. Yet it's all inside. No sky! No horizons. Never again a night sprinkled with stars. That light in the center- Looks like our sun but it's too small, much too small. When we leave, I don't want to come back; the god who takes care of fools and explorers let us arrive in empty space instead of maybe ten kilometers underground. But next time- I hate to think about it."

I said, "It may not have been luck, Zeb, but logical necessity."

"Huh. You've lost me, Captain."

"You're thinking of this as a spherical shell. But there is no basis for assuming that it has an outside."

"What? Endless millions of light-years of solid rock?"

"No, no! Nothing. By 'nothing' I do not mean space; I mean a total absence of existence of any sort. Different physical laws, a different topology. We may be seeing the totality of this universe. A small universe with a different sort of closed space."

"I can't visualize it, Jake."

"Deety, my dear, rephrase it for your husband."

"I'll try, Pop. Zebadiah, the geometry of this place may require different postulates from those that work back home. I'm sure you have played with Möbius strips-"

"A surface with only one side, one edge. But this is a sphere."

"Pop is saying that it may be a sphere with only one side, the inside. Have you ever tried to figure out a Klein bottle?"

"I got cross-eyed and a headache."

"This could be a Klein-bottle sort of thing. It might turn out that if you tunneled straight down anywhere down there, you would emerge at the opposite point, still inside. And that straight line might be shorter than the distance across. Maybe much shorter."

"Point three-one-eight-three-zero-nine is the ratio by the simplest postulates," I agreed. "But the geometry may not be that simple. However, Zeb, assuming that this is a total universe, our chances of arriving in open space were far greater than the chance of conflicting with a mass. But I would not wish to homestead here-pretty as it is. Nevertheless we might check for obstetricians."

"No obstetricians," Zeb answered firmly.

"Why?" I demanded.

"If there are human beings here, they do not have an advanced culture. Deety has been following that river. Did you notice where that other river joined it? Also look ahead where it meets the sea. No cities. No warehouses. No river traffic. No air traffic, no signs of roads. Yet this is choice real estate. Therefore, no advanced culture anywhere and a small population, if any. If anyone wants to refute me, please do so in the next two minutes; Deety can't hold this heap in the air much longer without using juice."

"I check you, Zebbie. They might be so advanced that they can make the whole joint look like a park. I wouldn't bet on it."

"Deety?" I asked.

"Aunt Hilda is right, Captain. But it's so pretty!"

"Hilda, expend one film, as a souvenir. Then we rotate." My daughter nosed the car down to permit a better picture.

A click- "Got it!" Hilda cried. "GaySagan!"

Mars of Universe-zero lay to starboard. Zeb sighed. "I'm glad to be out of there. Sharpie, did you get a picture?"

"Can't rush it," my wife answered. "Nnnn, yup, picture coming."

"Good!"

"Zebbie, I thought you didn't like that inside-out world?"

"I don't. If that picture is sharp, you two knocked-up broads weren't hit by radiation where it counts. Any fogging?"

"No, Zebbie, and brighter color every second. Here-look."

Zeb brushed it aside. "My sole interest is in radiation. Captain, I'm having misgivings. We've tried five out of fifteen and only one was even vaguely homelike. The pickings have been slim and the dangers excessive. But we know that Earth analogs Tau and Teh axes are Earthlike-"

"With monsters," put in Hilda.

"Tau axis, probably. We haven't explored Teh axis. Jake, are we justified in exposing our wives to dangers we can't imagine?"

"In a moment, Copilot. Astrogator, why did you rotate? I don't think I ordered it. I have been trying to run a taut ship."

"So have I, Captain. I must ask to be relieved as astrogator."

"I am sorry to say that I have been thinking along the same lines, my dearest. But you had better explain."

"Captain, three times you have replaced me at the conn without relieving me. The last time I let it continue, wondering and waiting. Just now we were losing altitude, dangerously. So I acted. Now I ask to be relieved."

Hilda seemed calm and not angry. But resolved. Had I really done anything out of line? It did not seem so to me.

"Zeb, have I been overriding the officer at the conn?"

Zeb took too long to answer. "Captain, this is a time when a man must insist on written orders. I will make a written reply."

"Hmm-" I said. "I think you have replied. Deety, what do you think? More written orders?"

"I don't need written orders. Pop, you've been utterly stinking!"

"You really feel so?"

"I know so. Aunt Hilda is right; you are dead wrong. She understated the case. You assign her responsibilities-then ignore her. Just now she carried out her assigned duties-and you chewed her out for it. Of course she wants to be relieved."

My daughter took a deep breath and went on: "And you bawled her out for ordering a scram escape. Twenty-seven minutes ago you said-and I quote:

'All Hands!-we are all free at all times to use any of the escape programs to get us out of danger.' End of quotation. Pop, how can you expect orders to be obeyed when you can't remember what orders you've given? Nevertheless, we have obeyed you, every time and no back talk-and we've all caught hell. Aunt Hilda caught the most-but Zebadiah and I caught quite a bit. Pop, you've been- I won't say it, I won't!"

I looked out the port at Mars for long unhappy minutes. Then I turned around. "I've no choice but to resign. Effective as I ground her. Family, I must admit to great humiliation. I had thought that I was doing quite well. Uh, back to our streamside, I think. Gay-"

"GayDeceiverOverride! Not on your tintype! You'll serve as long as I did-

not a second less! But Sharpie is right in refusing to take the conn under you; you've been mistreating her. Despite being a colonel, you have never learned that you can't assign responsibility without delegating authority to match- and then respect it. Jake, you're a lousy boss. We're going to keep you in the hot seat until you learn better. But there's no reason for Sharpie to resign over your failings."

"I still have something to say," said my daughter.

"Deety," Zeb said forcefully, "leave well enough alone!"

"Zebadiah, this is to ~ou quite as much-or more-as it is to Pop. Complaints of another sort."

My son-in-law looked startled. "Oh. Sorry. You have the floor."

XXXI

"-the first ghosts ever to search for an obstetrician."

Hilda:

If Zebbie and Jacob have a fault in common, it is overprotectiveness. Having always been the runt, I am habitually willing to accept protection. But Deety ~ rebels.

When Zebbie asked Jacob whether or not they were justified in exposing us to unknown dangers, Deety stuck her oar in-and Zebbie tried to hush her.

Zebbie should have known better.

But he is barely getting acquainted with her, whereas I've known her since her diaper days. Once when Deety was, oh, possibly four, I started to tie her shoes. She pulled away. "Deety do!" she announced indignantly-and Deety did: on one shoe a loose half bow that came apart almost at once, on the other a Gordian knot that required the Alexandrian solution.

It's been "Deety do!" ever since, backed by genius and indomitable will.

Deety told him, "Zebadiah, concerning completing this schedule: Is there some reason to exclude Hilda and me from the decision?"

"Damn it, Deety, this is one time when husbands have to decide!"

"Damn it, Zebadiah, this is one time when wives must be consulted!"

Zebbie was shocked. But Deety had simply matched his manner and rhetoric. Zebbie is no fool; he backed down. "I'm sorry, hon," he said soberly. "Go ahead."

"Yessir. I'm sorry I answered the way I did. But I do have something to say-and Hilda, too. I know I speak for both of us when I say that we appreciate

that you and Pop would die for us... and that you feel this more intensely now that we are pregnant.

"But we have not been pregnant long enough to be handicapped. Our bellies do not bulge. They will bulge, and that gives us a deadline. But for that very reason we will either sample those rotation universes today... or we will never sample them."

"Why do you say 'never,' Deety?"

"That deadline. We've sampled five and, scary as some have been, I wouldn't have missed it! We can look at the other ten in the next few hours. But if we start searching Teh axis there is no way to guess how long it will take. Thousands of universes along Teh axis and it seems likely that each holds an analog of Earth. We may check hundreds before we find what we are looking for. Let's say we find it and Hilda and I have babies with skilled medical attention. Then what? Zebadiah, are you going to be more willing to take women with babies into strange universes than you are without babies?"