"You—you don't think anything's happened to Earth, do you Matt?"
"Nothing could happen to seven billion people that suddenly! We've got the jitters. We've been out too long." He kissed her almost roughly.
The girl clung to him half in terror. Matt could feel her taut young body pressed against him. Slowly the tension melted out of her muscles. Fool, he thought, why didn't I try this two years ago?
Matt stiffened. Over the crown of Lynn's yellow hair he caught sight of a pale drawn face in the shadows of the ladder well across the deck.
It took him a second to recognize Nesbit, the palaeontologist, a young man only a few years out of college.
"What is it?" Lynn asked, turning her head. "Oh!"
Nesbit glared at the pair silently; then his face disappeared as he withdrew down the ladder.
"What the hell's eating him?" asked Matt.
Lynn bit her lip. "He must have followed us up. He...." She paused, looking embarrassed. "He asked me to marry him when we reach Earth."
"Good Lord," ejaculated Matt. He turned the girl loose. "I wouldn't...."