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These pleasant thoughts were pushed from his mind by the arrival of First Officer Morgan, who came hurrying into the control room with a file in his hand. 'I've just got the first survey results from the computer, Captain, he said, showing Dent the file. 'There's enough duralinium on this planet to build a million living units on Earth.'

'Excellent,' said Dent. He had trained his mind to switch instantly from one set of thoughts to another. All the personal memories were now switched off, and he was eagerly scanning his eyes down the set of figures on the computer print-out contained in the file.

Morgan said, 'I can't think how this planet ever got assigned for colonisation, can you, Captain?'

'Does it really matter?' said Dent, still eagerly reading the figures.

'Look,' said Morgan, ' Caldwell seems to have found a colonist for us.'

Dent looked up at the monitor. On it they could see Caldwell on the buggy driving straight towards them. Seated by Caldwell was a tall man with curly fair hair dressed in a knee-length black jacket and a frilly white shirt. The robot sat at the rear.

Morgan was amused, 'Why's he wearing fancy dress?'

'All colonists are eccentric,' said Dent, which was something he had once read in an IMC handbook on interplanetary sociology. 'Otherwise they wouldn't be colonists. They're drop-outs from society.'

By now the buggy had gone out of range of the outside television eye, so presumably it was too close in to the spaceship, it had probably stopped by the outside entrance, and its passengers would be in the process of dismounting.

Morgan asked, 'What are you going to say to this eccentric?'

'The usual story,' said Dent. 'We've only just arrived, and we are surprised and shocked to discover that the planet has been colonised.'

'Why couldn't we just blast them off the planet?' Morgan said. 'We've got the weapons.'

Dent closed the file and looked up at Morgan. 'Politics, dear boy. Earth Government is supposed to care for all its people, not only the interests of big business.' He smiled. 'We have to do things in a legal way.'

'I did everything the way you told me, sir,' said Morgan. 'But it seems such a long way to go about things.'

'Maybe,' said Dent. 'But the IMC way is best. You're young. You'll learn.' He heard Caldwell 's heavy footsteps coming along the main connecting corridor and quickly put the survey file out of sight in case Caldwell had the colonist with him. But Caldwell entered alone, and very angry.

'I've just come across a colonist,' Caldwell exploded. 'He says two people were killed last night!' He swung round on Morgan, 'You're only supposed to scare them, Morgan, not slaughter them!'

Dent was also annoyed with this news, but for different reasons. 'Did you know about this, Morgan?'

'He must have known!' bellowed Caldwell .

'Let him answer,' Dent said. He turned back to Morgan, who looked scared of Caldwell 's anger. 'Well?'

'It was an accident,' Morgan said, his face flushed with guilt. 'They found me and started shooting.'

'You acted very foolishly,' said Dent. 'You should not have let them see you.'

Caldwell returned to his attack on Dent. 'Is that all you can say? That Morgan was “foolish”?!'

Dent hated rows. During arguments people exposed what was really going on in their minds, and Dent never wanted other people to know what he was thinking. He said nothing for a moment, then retrieved the survey file from where he had put it out of sight. He opened the file under Caldwell 's nose. 'Look at these figures, Caldwell . This planet's got enough duralinium to double IMC's profits next year. Your own bonus will be big enough to retire on.'

Caldwell stared at the report. Dent watched Caldwell 's eyes as they sped from line to line of the figures.

One of the many lessons Dent had learnt from the IMC Staff Management School , which he attended for six months before becoming a Captain, was that money overcomes most staff problems.

'You're sure this survey