At the end of the day, Dr. Kalmar was emotionally exhausted. He said as he and Dr. Lowell were washing up, "The kid's hopeless. I thought you could straighten him out—God knows I couldn't—but he'll never see why we have to work the way we do."
"What do you suggest?" Dr. Lowell asked through a towel.
"Send him back to Earth. Get an intern who's more malleable."
Dr. Lowell tossed the towel into the sterilizer. "Can't be done. We're expanding so fast all over the Galaxy that Earth can't train and ship out enough doctors for the new colonies. If we sent him back, I don't know when we'd get another."
Dr. Kalmar swallowed. "You mean it's him or nobody?"
"Afraid so."
"But he'll never fit in on Deneb!"
"You did," Dr. Lowell said.
Dr. Kalmar tried to smile modestly. "I realized immediately how little I knew and how much more experience you had. I was willing to learn. Why, I used to listen to you and watch you work and try to see your reasons for doing things—"
"You think so?" asked Dr. Lowell.