the morning.

By the time they had reached the stage of marking out their respective territories with chalk, Stony made them quit. He told them that when he got through with me there wouldn't be enough left for them to argue about.

My ribs weren't doing me any good, either....

Someone was cuffing me on the head. I opened my eyes and it was a bright day.

"On your feet," Stony gritted. "You and me have got a date for a little game of truth or consequences. Remember?"

I staggered up and scrubbed some of the fatigue out of my face with my hands. Someone shoved a bulger at me. I saw that it was mine, and the tanks and ration kits were full. I crawled in and clamped down the fishbowl.

I led the way into the lock, with Stony and several of his lads at my heels. In a minute the lock clicked and I opened the door and stepped outside. The sun was only a couple of degrees high and the long shadows of the blister and the ship lay sharp and dark across the gray-white terrain. The stars burned against the black sky, very remote and indifferent. I tried to swallow the dryness in my mouth and throat, but it wouldn't go down.

A nudge from the muzzle of a blaster brought me back to the business in hand. I set off across the rocks, taking it as easy as I could without making my convoy too impatient. I headed straight for the Aspera. No need stalling now. Either Betty had had time to hide herself by now or it didn't matter.

When we pulled up at the scene of the wreck and I pointed to the pile of boulders and gravel that hid the remains of the ship, I thought Stony was going to share me out among his men without stopping to argue. I managed to show him a corner of bent hull plate sticking out of the rubble just in time. He put the boys to work tossing rocks.

It took a long time. I had counted on that. By the time the air lock was clear the sun was half-way down the sky again. Jockeying the slug out of the reaction chamber and getting it into its lead case was slow work, too. While it was going on Stony and I waited in the cabin, along with Karns. It seemed the boss fancied him as a gun-pointer.

I had a hard time to manage to retrieve my hand sextant from the corner where it had fallen without attracting their attention, but I made it. I stuffed it into my possum pouch and nobody made any objection.

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