Stress Pattern

His spaceship and supplies are swallowed in one gulp by something beneath the featureless plain of an unknown world. The natives are not hostile but they seem incurious. He is welcome to use their free railroad system - the "alimentary express" of a world-grinding Wormway. Those he regards as sane are considered to be crazy. The culture techniques he is sure are crazy turn out to be quite normal - by that world's standards. He fathers a child without ever touching the mother. It's when he does spring that he gets his most startling surprise.