In a moment he was through the cloud barrier and into the darkness. Earth was below the horizon today, but he saw Mars, clear and sharp against the backdrop of space. They wouldn't have done a fool thing like this to him on Mars, he thought. They weren't shorthanded there. But here, on Venus, the stepchild of space, the U.N. appropriation was bestowed grudgingly, and the technical staff was no more than skin-deep. Stasek scowled and thought of his unfinished work, and got even angrier.