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In time the sun set. It rose again. It set. And Cetis Gamma Two remained a living planet instead of being a scorched cinder.

When four days had gone by and nobody died, the colonists decided that they might actually keep on living. They had at first no especially logical foundation for their belief.

But Cathy boasted. And she boasted in Cetopolis. Since they were going to keep on living, the conventions required that she return to the planet’s one human settlement and her duties as a beamphone operator. It wasn’t proper for her to stay unchaperoned so long as she and Lon weren’t married yet.

She had no difficulty with Carson. He didn’t refer to her desertion. Carson had his own troubles. Now that he had decided that he would live, his problems multiplied. The colonists’ barns were filled to capacity with thanar leaves which would pay off their debts to the Company. He began to worry about that.

Lost without the constant directives from the Company, he had his technicians step up the power in the settlement transmitter. He knew that the screen Lon had put up would stop ordinary spacegram transmission. Even with a tight beam, he could broadcast and receive only at night, when the screen was thinnest. Even so, he had to search out holes in the screen.