"I certainly will, and that you had the electronic scanner up to its
full magnification for no apparent reason. That should finish you,
Collins."
"Chief, if you saw nothing through that scanner, you're already
finished. I don't want to stay in a service that would make something
like you out of me."
"You haven't the stuff to become something like me," I told him, and
went back to my chair.
"The service," he said gently, "is looking for planets or planetoids
that will support our kind of life. And you've just seen our kind of
life. And you're not going to report it. That's going to be your cross.
Because, Slide Rule, I'm not going to report it, either. That's my
secret, back there. That's _mine_."
"Whatever it was you think you saw, you'll never see it again,
Collins," I told him. "This is the only line from Mars to Jupiter and
you're going to be out of work once we're back to base."
"You think," he said. "You hope. You pray."
I wonder what he thought I'd been doing in my twelve years with Gideon?
I wonder if he thought I was so stupid I wouldn't have a few lines to
the right people in twelve years? Did he think only the noisy ones
could play this political game?
Once out of asteroid alley, I dozed. And dozing, dreamed of that black
haired temptress waving, dreamed of her like some pimply-faced young
idiot. Gad, if a man couldn't discipline himself after _my_ training....