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me some diamonds, Dennis! I told you this morning! Tai, while I’m on my feet: can’t you locate a native source of this compound which we might extract—say, with some of our fractional distillation rigs?”
    “We may be able to,” Tai Men conceded. “But I don’t think there’s any hope of getting the quantities we’d need. In your terms, I guess it would be as difficult as separating a rare-earths sample, perhaps even worse because since this damnable local bug can use ascorbic acid, the native compound is chemically very close indeed to it. If only it were close enough for us to utilise it too … But it’s not. We’re more complicated organisms; we’re much more choosy.”
    “Shall I assign you some fractionating columns anyway?” Ulla offered.
    “Yes!”
    The single word came from Hassan, before Tai Men could answer.
    “Tai, as a matter of policy, we’re going to exhaust every other alternative before we start risking irreplacable human lives on this problem.” Very stern, very paternal, Hassan glowered across the close-packed audience towards the biologist. “And that goes for your offer, too, Dennis!” he added sharply. “I’m sure everyone admiresand appreciates it, but it’s premature. This is an order, Tai: you’re to do your best to isolate concentrated ascorbic acid, free from any local contaminant, from the Earthly plants you’ve got growing. You’re also to go out and test every promising local plant to see whether ascorbic acid occurs here naturally along with the compound which you say is analogous to it. I’m not a specialist, but that seems conceivable to me.”
    Tai Men gave a grudging shrug.
    “Give me the equipment I’ll need to make the right tests, and I’ll see if I can find some in another climatic zone,” Dennis called. “I’m going off to find Ulla’s diamonds—I might as well make the most of the chance.”
    “Yes, certainly,” Hassan nodded. “In fact, I think we’d better declare this a priority. Co-opt anyone who can be spared from the other sections, Tai, show them how to make the tests, and if you don’t come up with anything on this island, see what you can locate on islands a bit further afield.”
    “It may not help much,” Tai said dampingly.
    “Why not?”
    “This place is like Earth in that once a particular compound has been shown to fill a metabolic niche, it tends to recur whenever the equivalent need arises again. Some of the local counterparts of vitamins run clear through the biological gamut from unicellular bacteria to large mobile animals. If organisms exist here which use ascorbic acid by choice, they’ll be relatively as rare as—well, let’s say creatures on Earth which use copper instead of iron in their blood.”
    He shrugged. “One can’t have it both ways. The fact that there’s this marginal chemical difference between the local life-forms and ourselves means that we don’t immediately catch all the infectious bacteria and viruses there are going. On the other hand …
this.”
    He sat down, and as though a cloud had crossed the sun Parvati felt the chill of anticipated doom settle on the assembly.

VI
    C OMPELLED BY her speciality to think about the deep implications of such phenomena, Parvati had always regarded it as a promising sign that the colony had developed a few of its own customs almost directly after the landing. When the reports rendered to the first monthly progress meeting showed that nothing had gone seriously wrong, a celebration had developed spontaneously. The next month, it had been repeated because people had so much enjoyed the first one, and thereafter it was a tradition.
    Under the stringent conditions of shipboard life, there had been little opportunity for simply enjoying oneself. Finding that the reservoir of relaxation could be tapped so easily, she had been pleased. It would be an excellent augury for the colony’s stability if, instead of carrying over Earthly festivals, the settlers were