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Oswald Mayer Sheffield (psychologist, thin as a string and as tall as a good length of it, and with a voice that could be used either for singing an operatic selection with surprising virtuosity or foraccuracy) did not show the anger one would have expected fro when he entered the Captain&039;s cabin

The Captain broke out mauvely as soon as he entered "Look here, Sheffield-"

"One minute, Captain Follenbee," said Sheffield "How are you, Mark?"

Mark&039;s eyes fell and his words were ht, Dr Sheffield"

"I wasnt aware you&039;d gotten out of bed"

There wasn&039;t the shade of reproach in his voice, but Mark grew apologetic "I was feeling better, Dr Sheffield, and I feel bad about not working I haven&039;t done anything in all the time I&039;ve been on the ship So I put in a call to the Captain to ask to see the logbook and he had ht I&039;o back to your rooan the Captain

Sheffield&039;s mild eyes rose to meet the Captain "I&039;m responsible for hi further to say

Mark turned obediently and Sheffield watched him leave and waited till the door ell closed behind hiain to the Captain "What&039;s the bloody idea, Captain?"

The Captain&039;s knees bent a little, then straightened and bent again with a sort of threatening rhythm The invisible slap of his hands, clasped behind his back, could be heard distinctly "That&039;s my question I&039;m Captain here, Sheffield"

"I know that"

"Knohat it nized planet I&039;oes Central Committee of the Confederacy can&039;t say otherwise I&039;ve got to ht, and now let , Captain You&039;re chartered by the Bureau of Outer Provinces to carry a governe Syste as research necessity requires and the safety of the crew and vessel perned that contract and you&039;ve assuations, Captain or not For instance, you can&039;t tamper with our instruments and destroy their research usefulness"

"Who in space is doing that?" The Captain&039;s voice was a blast of indignation

Sheffield repied calmly, "You are Hands off Mark Annuncio, Captain Just as you&039;ve got to keep your bands off Cimon&039;s ot to keep your hands off my Annuncio And that ers Got it?"

The Captain&039;s uniformed Chest expanded "I take no order on board e is a breach of discipline, Mister Sheffield Any more like that and it&039;s cabin arrest You and your Annuncio Don&039;t like it, then speak to Board of Review back on Earth Till then, it&039;s tongue behind teeth"

"Look, Captain, letMark is in the Mnemonic Service-"

"Sure, he said so Nummonic Service Nummonic Service It&039;s plain secret police as far as I&039;m concerned Well, not on board my ship, eh?"

"Mnemonic Service," said Sheffield patiently "Em-en-ee-em-oh-en-eye-see Service You don&039;t pronounce the first e mes?"

"Correct, Captain Look, in a way this is my fault I should have briefed you on this I would have, too, if the boy hadn&039;t gotten so sick right after the take-off It drove most other matters out of ht be interested in the workings of the ship itself Space knohy not He should be interested in everything"

"He should, eh?" The Captain looked at the timepiece on the wall "Brief me now, eh? But no fancy words Not many of any other kind, either Ti, I assure you Now you&039;re a space-going man, Captain How many inhabited worlds would you say there were in the Confederation?"

"Eighty thousand," said the Captain prohty-three thousand two hundred," said Sheffield "What do you suppose it takes to run a political organization that size?"

Again the Captain did not hesitate "Coht There&039;s Earth, where half the population works for the govern subcenters on every other world And even so data gets lost Every world knows so no other world knows Alroup Vernadsky doesn&039;t know any biology and I don&039;t know enough chemistry to stay alive There&039;s not one of us can pilot the siether, each one supplying the knowledge the others lack

"Only there&039;s a catch Not one of us knows exactly which of our own data is iven set of circu we know So we guess, and soo together beautifully sometimes So Person A, who knows Fact A, says to Person B, who knows Fact B, &039;Why didn&039;t you tell o?&039; and Person B answers, &039;I didn&039;t think it was iht everyone knew that&039;"

The Captain said, "That&039;s what computers are for"