 What does Mia discover about the people of the planet Tintera and why does it scare her?
The ancient rule was sink or swim—swim in the miasma of a planet without spaceflight, or sink to utter destruction! [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, July 1963. I The horses and packs were loaded before we went aboard the scoutship. The planet chosen for our Trial was called Tintera. Planets make me feel wretched. Either your arches and calves ache or every time you step you think you're going to trip on a piece of fluff and break your neck. We have a place in the Ship like that—the Third Level—but it's only a thousand square miles and any time it gets on your nerves you can go up a level or down a level and be back in civilization. When we reached Tintera, they started dropping us. When we turn fourteen, they drop us on the nearest colonized planet and come back one month later. They don't let us grow for fourteen years and then kick us out to die. It means that everybody on the Ship is a person who can take care of himself if he has to. The ship lifted impersonally away from Ninc and me like a rising bird, and in just a moment it was gone. When the sun disappears, somehow you wonder in your stomach if it's really going to come back. It was spring on Tintera, but it was December in the Ship, and after we got back we had five days of Holiday to celebrate.
 The Tinterans are free birthers. Free birthing is breeding without restraint, which is how the Earth became over populated. This is what catalyzed the wars that eventually destroyed the solar system.
 The Tinterans are free birthers. Free birthing is breeding without restraint, which is how the Earth became over populated. This is what catalyzed the wars that eventually destroyed the solar system.  The Tinterans have begun exploiting Losels for labor, which is against the laws of The Council. Mia knows she will have to report this back to the council, and that this will foster hostility between the scouts and the Tinterans.  The Tinterans have learned how to build a space ship. Successfully launching a ship means that they are now a threat to the people who live in space, like Mia.  The Tinterans know that scouts have invaded their planet, and are planning to round them up and put them in jail.