was, it was damaged, its hull ruptured. One by one figures in lsg left the damaged ship and were picked up by a second ship. During that period, Plank's calls went unanswered. When radio contact was made again, the voice was different. «Again, we ask you, if your intentions are not hostile, to surrender.» Plank muttered an oath. «That's what we want to do.» «Then allow us to board you.» «We have no control over the ship's defenses. We are merely passengers. We are being delivered home. We want to come home.» «Then exit the ship one at a time and you will be picked up,» the voice ordered. It was an older sounding voice, perhaps, Plank thought, a senior commander. «And be blasted in space?» «Not if you surrender.» «We surrender,» Plank yelled, rolling his eyes at Hara and Heath. «Come out one at a time.» «There are three of us and we have only one lsg,» Plank said. «I will come out. Then I'll have to borrow two lsgs and bring them back over.» «If you will allow us to board you we will bring LSGS.» «I have no control over the ship's defense. It will not allow boarding.» «Hold one,» the voice said. When the radio sputtered again, the message was, «All right. One at a time. Come out.» «They're nervous,» Heath said. «I don't know if I want to go out or not.» «We have to go out sometime,» Plank said. He went into the cargo hold. As he expected, the lock operated itself. When the outside port opened and the air was exhausted, he stuck his head out cautiously. The second ship was near, and he could see missile launchers pointed his way. «I'm coming out,» he said. He attached a line and pushed himself away. The line allowed him to travel about three meters before jerking him to a stop. He
saw the missiles fire and they detonated on the ship's field in front of him. He pulled himself back and the lock accepted, allowed him entry to the ship. That had been a big question in his mind, whether or not, once he had left the ship, he would be allowed reentry to bring lsgs to Hara and Heath. He rejoined them in the lounge and peeled out of lsg. «I think we're just going to have to wait for a while, until they cool down a bit.» «Let me use the radio,» Hara said. She activated the instrument and said, «This is Commander Sahara.» She gave her serial number. «I want to speak with Secretary Maxwell Seagle.» «That is not possible,» the tense voice informed them. «It is possible,» Hara said. «First you patch through to Moon Control, and then you ask them to patch you through to Earth and the secretary's office.» «Hold one,» the voice said. A moment later, it returned, «Your request is impossible.» «All right, then,» Hara said. «We'll wait until it is possible.» Another attack was tried. A huge laser cruiser almost burned itself while blasting away at the Pride's shield from close range. Plank was having a cup of coffee from the galley. He was beginning to be slightly put out. He did not begrudge them their caution, but he was fed up with their
stupidity. In irritation, following the laser attack, he turned on the radio
and, affecting a weird accent, he said, «All right, this has gone far enough. Now you will connect me with your leader.» There was a long pause. «Identify yourself,» the voice on the radio said. «I am the Creature Who Ate Central Africa,» Plank said. «I will eat you unless you take me to your leader.» He looked at Hara and grinned. «It's no joking matter,» she hissed at him. «Which leader?» the voice asked. Hara took the switch. «Space Secretary Maxwell Seagle,» she said. «Hold one.» She recognized Seagle's voice. He sounded tired. «This is Secretary Seagle,» he said. «Why did you ask to speak with me specifically?» «Because you should remember me,» Hara said. «I came aboard your ship to ask that Commander Heath be allowed to use the last blink test vehicle.» «Yes, I remember the visit,» Seagle said. «But you're not sure that I'm the same woman who paid that visit?» Hara asked. «We have reason for caution,» Seagle said. «Yes, of course,» Hara agreed. «But, sir, we want to come out. We'll come out one at a time. Then we can explain everything.» «Try to explain it now,» Seagle said. So she talked. There were many questions. In the end, Plank was in lsg again and standing in the lock. But he, himself, insisted on precautions. Between him and the nearest ship were men in lsg. They were directly in line of the ship's fire. He used his steering jets to push his lsg toward them, joined them, used their lines to draw himself into the ship. There he was seized, his lsg peeled off him. He did not resist. A doctor examined him. «He's a man, all right,» the doctor said. «Now give me two extra suits and let me get the others,» he said. «Not a chance, buddy,» said a stern senior commander. «One of my boys will go.» «He won't be able to get in,» Plank said. «The port is still open.» «It won't admit him.» «We'll see.» The man couldn't even get past the shield. «Look,» Plank argued, «You're worried about the ship, not about three people in lsg. The ship has proven itself to be impregnable. Get the other two off, get them here, safe, and the ship's defenses go down. They're geared to protect life. Remove the life and you can blast her or board her as you please.» «I think you're lying,» the senior commander said. «Get me Secretary Seagle,» Plank requested wearily. «Not a chance,» the commander said. «I'm authorized to make field decisions.» «All right, then,» said Plank, «it's your funeral.» «What do you mean by that?» the commander asked nervously. «Our only radio is in the lsg,» Plank said. «My friends are now out of communication.» «Or they don't choose to communicate,» the commander said. «We don't want to have to do it, but we arranged before I came out to send a missile down to the base if you held me.» The commander's head jerked. «Send word. Tell them immediate evacuation.» «All you have to do is let me go over, with two lsgs for the others. Then it's over.» «I'd like a mind scan,» the doctor who had examined Plank said. «Perhaps he's telling the truth.» «No mind scan,» Plank said. «I've had enough of people fooling around in my mind.» It was stalemate, a stalemate broken only when Maxwell Seagle boarded and talked personally with Plank, asking many of the same questions, going over and over the story until Plank's temper was worn thin. Then and only then was Plank allowed to return. Hara and Heath donned lsg, and finally the three of them were aboard the cruiser, closely guarded, facing Seagle, the doctor, the ship's commander. «You said we could board after you were off,» the commander said. «I said it, but it's not true. The ship won't allow you to board,» Plank said. «We can try,» the commander said. A cry of alarm came over the communications system. The commander ran for the control room. When he returned, his face was grim.
«Sir,» he said to Seagle, «it broke up. It turned all colors, disintegrated, and disappeared.» «Now it is over,» Hara said. «No,» Plank said, «it's just beginning.» And it was. He had something different in mind when he said it was just beginning. What began were the mind scans and the questioning and the endless repetitions. They were separated. For days Plank did not see Hara. For days he submitted to their examinations and their questions; the three were a closely guarded secret, kept hidden away at moon base. The moon and Earth were on full alert. As the days passed, the tenseness died. When he was allowed to see her she looked haggard. She came into his arms with a little cry of gladness, and he kissed her. Within a week, they were Earthbound. They were married in a quiet ceremony and rented a suite in a hotel in the Amazon Natural Forest. After two weeks there, they visited Plank's mother and Hara's parents. Then they reported in to work. Plank requested transfer from free enterprise back to service to be allowed to work with Walker Heath. When they arrived on the moon, Heath was already in construction. Using an existing hull, he was installing surplus parts left over from the blink experiments. On the day of the first test, a battery of Earth dignitaries clustered in the control room. The test vehicle blinked out a few thousand kilometers and blinked back. It blinked out a light-year and blinked back. Heath insisted on riding the third test. He returned safely. Some months later, Commander Sahara led her ship into a dense starfield toward the core of the galaxy. A diligent search produced not a single scrap of the tinker-toy planet. The search was made more interesting by the persistent attentions of her first officer, one Commander John Plank. EPILOGUE On his ninety-fifth birthday, John Sahara Plank III walked through an early-morning fog to stand atop a hill looking down on the campus. It was May, and the Virginia hills were dressed in spring togs; the temperature indicated a warm day that, at that sunrise hour, was invigorating. Plank had chosen to wear uniform. The choice seemed to be in keeping with the
day. He was alone on the hill. Below him, as the fog began to shred and lift
in the first heat of the early sun, he could see a few students beginning to move in the plaza, some of them walking toward the cafeteria for breakfast, some just strolling to enjoy the beautiful morning. The university filled the small valley, climbed the hill on the far side
toward the towers of the blink-stat station. To the left, the parking lot was packed and, as he watched, two atmoflyers came in, bearing, perhaps, off-campus students, workers or visitors. In an hour the campus would be a hive of activity. To John Sahara Plank III, the perfect morning seemed to be a good omen. With the sun over his shoulder, he walked down the trail, a tall, well-built man in his prime, his ash blond hair medium long, his eyes alert beneath bushy blond eyebrows. By the time he reached the plaza it was filling with students hurrying to class. Many of them recognized him, nodded, spoke to him by name. He walked with his hands behind his back, his head lowered, giving the impression that he was deep in thought. He was a familiar figure on the campus. He still had time before meeting his morning class, a seminar of graduate students in engineering, so he bypassed the classic lines of the Walker Heath Building and walked through the arboretum. He cast only a casual glance on the exotics from the populated planets of the galaxy. Emerging into sunlight again, he turned left, pressed his palm on the identifier at the door of his laboratory and entered. Musing, he stood in the main lab, hands still clasped behind him. The lab was empty, the work done. The equipment would be preserved. Unless he were wrong, it would be there
