brows, walked forth to meet him as soon as he recognized him. "Glad to see you're still alive," Lake greeted him. "I thought that second Gern blast got you along with the others." "I was visiting midship and wasn't home when it happened," he said. He looked at Lake's group of Rejects, in their misery and uncertainty so much like his own, and asked, "How was it last night?" "Bad—damned bad," Lake said. "Prowlers and Hell Fever, and no wood for fires. Two hundred died last night." p. 17 p. 17 "I came down to see if anyone was in charge here and to tell them that we'll have to move into the woods at once—today. We'll have plenty of wood for the fires there, some protection from the wind, and by combining our defenses we can stand off the prowlers better." Lake agreed. When the brief discussion of plans was finished he asked, "How much do you know about Ragnarok?" "Not much," Prentiss answered. "We didn't stay to study it very long. There are no heavy metals on Ragnarok's other sun. Its position in the advance of the resources of any value. We gave Ragnarok a quick survey and when the sixth man died we marked it on the chart as uninhabitable and went on our way. "As you probably know, that bright blue star is Ragnarok's other sun. It's position in the advance of the yellow sun shows the season to be early spring. When summer comes Ragnarok will swing between the two suns and the heat will be something no human has ever endured. Nor the cold, when winter comes. "I know of no edible plants, although there might be some. There are a few species of rodent-like animals—they're scavengers—and a herbivore we called the woods goat. The prowlers are the dominant form of life on Ragnarok and I suspect their intelligence is a good deal higher than we would like it to be. There will be a constant battle for survival with them. "There's another animal, not as intelligent as the prowlers but just as dangerous—the unicorn. The unicorns are big and fast and they travel in herds. I haven't seen any here so far—I hope we don't. At the lower elevations are the swamp crawlers. They're unadulterated nightmares. I hope they don't go to these higher elevations in the summer. The prowlers and the Hell Fever, the gravity and heat and
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