There she could faintly hear them entering compartments, demanding names, and saying, “ Out⁠—out! ” Once she heard a Gern say, “Acceptables will remain inside until further notice. Do not open your doors after the Rejects have been taken out.”

Billy touched her on the hand. “Isn’t Daddy going to come?”

“He⁠—he can’t right now. We’ll see him pretty soon.”

She remembered what the Gern commander had said about the Rejects being permitted to take their personal possessions. She had very little time in which to get together what she could carry.⁠ ⁠…

There were two small bags in the compartment and she hurried to pack them with things she and Dale and Billy might need, not able to know which of them, if any, would be Rejects. Nor could she know whether she should put in clothes for a cold world or a hot one. The Gern commander had said the Rejects would be left on an Earth-type planet but where could it be? The Dunbar Expedition had explored across five hundred light-years of space and had found only one Earth-type world: Athena.

The Gerns were almost to her door when she had finished and she heard them enter the compartments across from her own. There came the hard, curt questions and the command: “Outside⁠—hurry!” A woman said something in pleading question and there was the soft thud of a blow and the words: “Outside⁠—do not ask questions!” A moment later she heard the woman going down the corridor, trying to hold back her crying.

Then the Gerns were at her own door.