'Andrew Blake, he said. 'An intriguing piece of business. Daniels shook his head in puzzlement. 'More than intriguing, he declared. 'It just isn't possible. How old would you take Blake to be? By just looking at him.

'Not more than thirty, Mike. Of course we know he could be a couple of hundred, chronologically.

'If he were thirty, you'd expect some deterioration, wouldn't you? The body begins wearing out early in the twenties. From there it goes progressively downhill, heading towards old age.

'I know, said Barnes. 'But not this Blake, I take it.

'Perfect, said Daniels. 'A perfect specimen. Youthful. More than youthful. Not a blemish. Not a weakness.

'And no evidence of who he really is?

Daniels shook his head. 'Space Administration has gone through the records with a fine-toothed comb. He could be any one of thousands of people. Within just the last two centuries, several dozen ships have simply disappeared. Went out and no more heard of them. He could be any one of the people who were aboard those ships.

'Someone froze him, said Barnes, 'and stuck him in the capsule. Could that be a clue of some sort?

'You mean someone who was so important that someone else took a chance at saving him?

'Something like that.

'It doesn't make sense, said Daniels. 'Even if they did, it still is a bit too sticky. Fire a man out into space and what are the chances he'll be found again? A billion to one? A trillion to one? I don't know. Space is big and empty.

'But Blake was found.

'Yes, I know. His capsule floated into a solar system that had been colonized less than a hundred years ago and a gang of asteroid miners found him. The capsule had taken up an orbit around an asteroid and they saw it flashing in the sun and got curious. Too much flash to it. Had dreams of finding a monstrous diamond or something. A few years longer and he would have crashed on the asteroid. Try to figure out those odds.