Dr. Bryant said quietly, "That will not be necessary, Gary. You have led us most successfully up till now. I think we are all willing to accept your judgment."
"You're darn tootin'!" said Muldoon.
And Dr. Kang said blandly, "I, too, have perfect confidence in your decisions, Dr. Lane."
Anjers' round face puffed with petulance. His bushy eyebrows drew together. "Oh, very well!" he snapped in a tone almost a snarl. "But I warn you, you're making a great mistake!" And angrily he stomped from the room.
But to the man's credit, his pique did not last long. Before the day ended he had returned, as urbane as ever, with a contrite smile and an apology on his lips. So equanimity was restored aboard the Liberty, and that was good, for on a voyage such as this it was better to avoid all clash of personalities.
"We are fortunate," said Dr. Kang one night after Lark O'Day had reported an argument in the crew's quarters which had almost resulted in a free-for-all between the blasters and the mariners, "we number no Venusians or Jovians among our corps. It has been my observation that the members of these two races mingle poorly with the children of your world and mine. Of the four races, our two are the more easy-going, theirs the more emotional. Perhaps the early history of your Earth might have been less bloody had not your continent embraced such a diversity of planetary colonists."
Hugh Warren stared.
"Colonists? Are you trying to tell us, Dr. Kang, that the races of Earth's mankind aren't indigenous to Earth?"
The ivory-tinted one's eyebrows lifted slightly. "But of course they are not, Captain. Surely you didn't believe—or did you? But how unreasonable to think that one small planet would breed more than a single species! You of the white-skinned race are the only true race of Earth."