The skipper wheeled and his face flooded crimson:
"Mr. Guhn, may I ask what you're doing off your watch?"
"Sir, that's a skag. They've taken over the ship."
"You're hysterical, Mr. Guhn. Damned right he's a skag. Been a skag for a million years. You hear that? Best dream I've ever had. We're going to get him back to Rigel ... next trip out. Drinks like a blasted fish, the fellow does."
Incredulity fought fear in Charles Guhn's brain, until the alternate waves of emotion caused his collapse. Capt. Jock Warren bent over and raised him. The two men's faces came close together. The skipper's eye closed slowly, once, twice: "We'll be all right if the juice holds out."
The skag bent over too in an inebriated effort to assist. Then, the skipper and his million-year-old companion locked arms and hoisted the flask of narcol.
From Charlie Guhn's Log:
The skags were friendly enough, once barriers broke down. They had suspended their civilization when a helium cloud passed through their system. Helium was poisonous to their composition and the skag culture may have to be transferred to a nitrogen-major planet.
On termination of the voyage, Mark Caldwell, astrogator, promptly applied for transfer to the Arcturus run. Second Officer Guhn refused to sign again and took a berth on the Earth-Mars shuttle. Capt. Jock Warren posed for a "Captain of Distinction" testimonial for the narcol people and retired on his earnings, protesting a higher fee paid to a skag for a similar portrait.