"Uh, no, sir."
"Then do so." Lieutenant Brunn immediately started to leave the table, "- after dinner," added the Captain. Brunn resumed his place.
"That puts me in mind of something that happened to me when I was 'farmer' in the old Percival Lowell-the one before the present one," Yancey went on. "We had touched at Venus South Pole and had managed somehow to get a virus infection, a sort of rust, into the 'farm'-don't look so superior, Mr. Jensen; someday you´ll come a cropper with a planet that is new to you!"
"Me, sir? I wasn't looking superior."
"No? Smiling at the pansies, no doubt?"
"Yes, sir." \
"Hmmph! As I was saying, we got this rust infection and about ten days out I didn't have any more farm than| an Eskimo. I cleaned the place out, sterilized, and reseeded. ? Same story. The infection was all through the ship and I couldn't chase it down. We finished that trip on preserved! foods and short rations and I wasn't allowed to eat at the! table the rest of the trip." He smiled to himself, then' shouted at the galley door, "How you getting along in there, Red?"
The Executive Officer appeared in the doorway, a spoon in one hand, covered dish in the other. "Fine," he answered^ in a muffled voice, "I just ate your dessert, Captain."
Lieutenant Brunn shouted, "Hey! Commander! Stop! Don't! \ Those berries are for breakfast."
"Too late." Commander Miller wiped his mouth.