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MacLeod said in a whisper, "There are the proofs of your aborigines. Can they be arboreal? Is that

why we haven't seen them?"

Judy said sharply, "Hush!" In the distance there was a small, shrill, chattering sound; then, above

them on the bridge, a creature appeared.

They all got a good look at it in that moment; about five feet tall, either pale-skinned or covered with

pale fur, gripping the bridge rail with undoubted hands--none of them had presence of mind to count the

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fingers--a flat but oddly humanoid face, with a flat nose and red eyes. For nearly ten seconds it clung to the bridge and looked down at them, seeming nearly as startled as they were themselves; then, with a shrill birdlike cry it rushed across the bridge, swung up into the trees and vanished.

MacAran let out a long sigh. So this world was inhabited, not free and open for mankind. MacLeod

asked quietly, "Judy, were these the people you saw that day? The one you called
 
the beautiful one
 
?"

Judy's face took on the strange stubbornness which any mention of that day could bring on. "No,"

she said, quietly but very positively. "These are the little brothers, the small ones who are not wise."

And nothing could move her from that, and very quickly they gave over questioning her. But

MacLeod and Major Fraser were in seventh heaven.

"Arboreal humanoids. Nocturnal, to judge by their eyes, probably simian, although more like tarsiers than apes. Obviously sapient--they're tool-users and makers of artifacts.
 
Homo arborens
 
. Men living in trees," MacLeod said.

MacAran said hesitatingly, "If we have to stay here--how can two sapient species survive on one

planet?

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Doesn't that invariably mean a fatal war for dominance?"

Fraser said, "God willing, no. After all, there were four sapient species on Earth for a long time. Mankind--and dolphins, whales, and probably elephants too. We just happened to be the only
technological
 
species. They're tree-dwelling; we're ground-dwelling. No conflict, as far as I cansee--anyway no
 
necessary
 
conflict."

MacAran wasn't so sure, but kept his qualms to himself.

Peaceful as their trip was, there were unexpected dangers. In the valley with the game, which theynamed for convenience the Plains of Zabal, the game was stalked by great catlike predators and onlynighttime fires kept them away. And on the heights MacAran caught his first sight of the birds with thebanshee voices; great wingless birds with vicious claws, moving at such speeds that only a last desperaterecourse to the laser beam they carried for emergencies kept Dr. Fraser from being disemboweled by aterrible stroke; MacLeod, dissecting the dead bird, discovered that it was completely blind. "Does it getat its prey by hearing? Or something else?"

"I suspect it senses body warmth," MacAran said, "they seem only to live in the snows." They christened the dreadful birds
 
banshees
 
, and avoided the passes except in broad daylight after that. They also found mounds of the scorpion-like ants whose bites had killed Dr. Zabal, and debated poisoning them; MacLeod was against it, on the grounds that these ants might form some important part of an ecological chain which could not be disturbed. They finally agreed to exterminate only the mounds within three square miles of the ship, and warn everyone about the dangers of their bite. It was an interim measure, but then everything they did on this planet was an interim measure.

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"If we leave the damn place," Dr. Fraser said harshly, "we'll have to leave it pretty much the way we

found it."

When they returned to the encampment, after a three week survey, they found that two permanentbuildings of wood and stone had already been erected; a common recreation hall and refectory, and abuilding for use as a laboratory. It was the last time MacAran measured anything by weeks; they still didnot know the length of the planet's year, but they had for the sake of convenience

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and the assignment of duties and work shifts set up an arbitrary ten-day cycle, with one day in every ten a general holiday. Large gardens had been laid out and seeds were already sprouting, and a careful harvesting was being made of a few tested fruits from the woods.

A small wind generator had been rigged, but power was strictly rationed, and candles made fromresin from the trees were being issued for night use: The temporary domes still housed most of thepersonnel except those who were located in the hospital; MacAran shared his with a dozen other single

men.

The day after his return Ewen Ross summoned both him and Judy to the hospital. "You missed Dr. Di Asturien's announcement," he said. "In brief, our hormone contraceptives are worthless--nopregnancies so far except one very doubtful early miscarriage, but we've been relying on hormones solong that no one knows much about the prehistoric kind any more. We don't have pregnancy-testingequipment, either, since nobody needs it on a spaceship. Which means if we do get any pregnancies theymay be too far advanced for safe abortions before they're even diagnosed!"

MacAran smiled wryly. "You can save your breath where I'm concerned," he said, "the only girl I'mcurrently interested in doesn't know I'm alive--or at least wishes I weren't." He had not even seen Camillasince his return.

Ewen said, "Judy, what about you? I looked up your Medic record; you're at the age where

contraception is voluntary instead of mandatory--"

She smiled faintly. "Because at my age I'm not likely to be taken unawares by emotion. I've not beensexually active on this voyage--there's no one I've been interested in, so I've not bothered with the shots."

"Well, check with Margaret Raimondi anyhow--she's giving out emergency information just in case. Sex is voluntary, Judy, but information is mandatory. You can choose to abstain--but you ought to be free to choose not to, so run along to Margaret and pick up the information."

She began to laugh and it struck MacAran that he had not seen Judith Lovat laugh since the day ofthe strange madness that had attacked them all. But the laughing seemed to have a hysterical note whichmade him uneasy,

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and he was relieved when she said at last, "Oh, very well. What harm can it do?" and went. Ewen

looked after her with disquiet, too.

"I'm not happy about her. She seems to have been the only one permanently affected by whatever it was that hit us, but we haven't psychiatrists to spare and anyhow she is able to do her work--which is a legal definition of sanity in any terms. Still, I hope she snaps out of it. Was she all right on the trip?"

MacAran nodded. He said thoughtfully, "Perhaps she had some experience she hasn't told us about. She certainly seems at home here. Something like what you told me about MacLeod knowing the fruitswere good to eat. Could an emotional shock develop latent psi powers?"

Ewen shook his head. "God only knows, and we're too busy to check it out. Anyhow, how wouldyou check out anything like that? As long as she's normal enough to do her assigned work I can'tinterfere with her."

After leaving the hospital, MacAran walked through the encampment. Everything looked peaceful,from the small shop where farm tools were being constructed, to the ship area where machinery wasbeing removed and stored. He found Camilla in the dome which had been wind-damaged the night of thefire; it had been repaired and reinforced, and the computer controls set up inside. She looked at him withwhat seemed open hostility.

"What do you want? Has Moray sent you here to order me to transform this into a weather station

or some such thing?"

"No, but it sounds like a good idea," MacAran said. "Another blizzard like the one that hit us the

night of the fire, could wreck us if we weren't warned."

She came and looked up at him. Her arms were straight down at her sides, clenched into fists, andher face taut with anger. She said, "I think you must all be quite insane. I don't expect anything more ofthe colonists--they're just civilians and all they care about is getting their precious colony set up. But you, Rafe! You've had a scientist's training, you ought to see what it means! All we have is the hope ofrepairing the ship--if we waste our resources on anything else, the chances get smaller and smaller!" Shesounded frantic. "And we'll be here forever'!'

MacAran said slowly, "Remember, Camilla, I was one

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of the colonists, too. I left Earth to join the Coronis colony--"

"But that's a regular colony, with everything set up to make it to make it part of civilization," Camilla

said. "I can understand
 
that
 
. Your skills, your education, they'd be
 
worth
 
something!"

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MacAran reached out and took her shoulders in his hands. "Camilla--" he said, and put all hisyearning into the sound of her name. She didn't actually respond, but she was quiet between his hands,looking up at him. Her face was drawn and miserable.

"Camilla, will you listen to me a minute? I'm with the Captain all the way, as far as acts go. I'm willing to do anything needful to make sure the ship gets off the ground. But I'm keeping in mind that it may not, after all, be possible, and I want to make sure we can survive if it isn't."

"Survive for what?" Camilla said, almost frantic. "To revert to savagery, survive as farmers,

barbarians, with nothing that makes life worth living? We'd do better to die in a last effort!"

"I don't know why you say that, my love. After all, the first humans started with less than we have. Their world, maybe, had a little better climate, but then we have ten or twelve thousand years of human know-how. A group of people that Captain Leicester thinks capable of repairing a starship, ought to have enough know-how to build a pretty good life for themselves and their children--and all the generations after that." He tried to draw her into his arms, but she wrenched away, white and furious.

"I'd rather
die
 
," she said harshly, "any civilized human being would! You're worse than the New Hebrides group out there--Moray's people--that damnfool back-to-nature crew, playing right into his hands--"

"I don't know anything about them--Camilla, my darling, please don't be angry with me. I'm only

trying to look at both sides--"

"But there is only one side," she flung at him, angry and implacable, "and if you don't see it that way then you aren't even worth talking with! I'm ashamed--I'm ashamed of myself that I ever let myself think you might be different!" Tears were running down her face, and she

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angrily flung off his hands. "Get out and stay out! Get out, damn you!"

MacAran had the temper usually associated with his hair. He dropped his hands as if he had beenburned, and spun on his heel. "It will be a positive pleasure," he said between his teeth, and strode out ofthe dome, slamming the reinforced door until it rattled on its hinges. Behind him Camilla collapsed on abench, her face in her hands, and cried herself sick, weeping frantically until a wave of violent nausearacked her, forcing her to stagger away toward the women's latrine area. At last she crept away, herhead pounding, her face flushed and sore, aching in every nerve.

As she returned to the computer dome, a memory struck her. This had happened three timesnow--in a surge of violent fear and rejection, her hands went up to her mouth, and she bit at herknuckles.

"Oh,
 
no
 
," she whispered, "Oh, no, no…" and her voice trailed off in whispered pleas and

imprecations. Her grey eyes were wild with terror.

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MacAran had gone into the combined recreation area-refectory, which had quickly become a centerfor the huge and disorganized community, when he noticed on an improvised bulletin board a noticeabout a meeting of the New Hebrides Commune. He had seen this before--the colonists accepted by Earth Expeditionary had consisted not only of individuals like himself and Jenny, but of small groups orcommunes, extended families, even two or three business companies wishing to extend their trade oropen branch offices. They were all carefully screened to determine how they would fit into the balanceddevelopment of the colony, but apart from that they were a most heterogeneous crew. He suspected thatthe New Hebrides Commune was one of the many small neo-rural communes who had drawn awayfrom the mainstream society on latter-day Earth, resenting its industrialization and regimentation. Manysuch communities had gone out to the star colonies; everyone agreed that while misfits on Earth, theymade excellent colonists. He had never paid the slightest attention to them before; but after Camilla'swords he was curious. He wondered if their meeting was open to outsiders?

He vaguely remembered that this group had occasionally reserved one of the ship's recreation areas

for their own meetings, they seemed to have a strongly knit