creaked and labored and plodded through space toward the yellow spark of Sol.

"A year!" he thought in impotent rage. "A year in that hole! I might as well be dead."

The psychotherapist had held out the hope that it might not take a year. Some cases of star-sickness responded quickly to Earth-treatment. But even a few months seemed an eternity to Carlin.

The passengers of the "Larkoom" were crowding toward the transparent wall of the deck. Earth was coming into sight. And these people—men and women bronzed by the glare of Canopus, reddened by the desert winds of Rigel's worlds, paled by the mists of Altair's planets—all were watching with an intense and eager expectation.

Carlin walked wearily over to the deck wall and watched with them. Sol, ahead, was a small and undistinguished yellow sun. Its orb was unimpressive to eyes that had looked on Antares and Altair.

And the planets that circled it were so little that Carlin could hardly make them out. He remembered half-forgotten names from ancient history—Saturn, Jupiter, Mars. And that little gray-green dot beyond must be Earth.

"Isn't it tiny?" babbled a rapturous, overweight woman beside Carlin. "I think it's cute!"

A very young man from Mizar Seven proudly aired his knowledge.

"That satellite beyond it is Luna, its moon."

"The moon is almost as big as the little planet!" exclaimed someone, laughing.

Carlin found their chatter getting on his nerves, and edged further along the deck. In gloomy silence, he looked down as the "Larkoom" swept in swift, almost soundless rush toward the little planet.

A gray-green, cloud-screened ball spinning around a second-rate sun—it looked like the end of the universe to Carlin. And he might have to spend a year here! His spirits sank still lower.

"They say you can get the most wonderful souvenirs here," one of the tourists' voices reached him.

Carlin writhed. He would be glad to get out even at Earth, to get away from this bunch of babbling fools.

He realized his irritability was extreme, unreasonable. It was the result of his star-sickness, he supposed. But that didn't make it any more endurable.

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