"The Fleet lost a unit called Handing's Scout about four years ago,
didn't it?"
"Three and a half," she said. She paused. "Handing's Scout is the other
wreck down there?"
"Yes. There was one survivor ... as far as we know. You may recall his
name. Leed Farous."
Duomart nodded. "The little kwil hound. He was assistant navigator. How
did Dr. Egavine...?"
Dasinger said, "Farous died in a Federation hospital on Mezmiali two
years ago, apparently of the accumulative effects of kwil addiction.
He'd been picked up in Hub space in a lifeboat which we now know was one
of the two on Handing's Scout."
"In Hub space? Why, it must have taken him almost a year to get that far
in one of those tubs!"
"From what Dr. Egavine learned," Dasinger said, "it did take that long.
The lifeboat couldn't be identified at the time. Neither could Farous.
He was completely addled with kwil ... quite incoherent, in fact already
apparently in the terminal stages of the addiction. Strenuous efforts
were made to identify him because a single large star hyacinth had been
found in the lifeboat ... there was the possibility it was one of the
stones the Dosey Asteroids Company had lost. But Farous died some months
later without regaining his senses sufficiently to offer any
information.
"Dr. Egavine was the physician in charge of the case, and eventually
also the man who signed the death certificate. The doctor stayed on at
the hospital for another year, then resigned, announcing that he
intended to go into private research. Before Farous died, Egavine had of
course obtained his story from him."