Hilton sat in the control room with Ts’ss and Saxon. He opened a wall compartment, glanced in, and closed it again. Then he nodded at Saxon.
“The skipper won’t change his mind,” he said. “Silenus is our next port. I’ve never been there.”
“I have,” Ts’ss said. “I’ll tell you about it later.”
Saxon drew an irritated breath. “You know what the gravity-pull is, then, Ts’ss. I’ve never been there either, but I’ve looked it up in the books. Giant planets, mostly, and you can’t come from hyper into normal space after you’ve reached the radius. There’s no plane of the ecliptic in that system. It’s crazy. You have to chart an erratic course toward Silenus, fighting varying gravities from a dozen planets all the way, and then you’ve still got the primary’s pull to consider. You know La Cucaracha won’t do it, Mr. Hilton.”
“I know she won’t,” Hilton said. “We pushed our luck this far, but any more would be suicide. She simply won’t hold together for another run. We’re stranded here. But the skipper won’t believe that.”
“He’s insane,” Saxon said. “I know the endurance limits of a machine—that can be found mathematically—and this ship’s only a machine. Or do you agree with Captain Danvers? Maybe you think she’s alive!”
Saxon was forgetting discipline, but Hilton knew what strain they were all under.
“No, she’s a machine all right,” he merely said. “And we both know she’s been pushed too far. If we go to Silenus, it’s—” He made a gesture of finality.
“Captain Danvers says—Silenus,” Ts’ss murmured. “We can’t mutiny, Mr. Hilton.”
“Here’s the best we can do,” Hilton said. “Get into hyper somehow, ride the flow, and get out again somehow. But then we’re stuck. Any planet or sun with a gravity pull would smash us. The trouble is, the only worlds with facilities to overhaul La Cucaracha are the big ones. And if we don’t get an overhaul fast we’re through. Saxon, there’s one answer, though. Land on an asteroid.”
“But why?”
“We could manage that. No gravity to fight, worth mentioning. We certainly can’t radio for help, as the signals would take years to reach anybody. Only hyper will take us fast enough. Now—has Transmat set up any stations on asteroids?”
Saxon opened his mouth and closed it again.
“Yes. There’s one that would do, in the Rigel system. Far out from the primary. But I don’t get it. Captain Danvers wouldn’t stand for that.”
Hilton opened the wall compartment. Gray smoke seeped out.
“This is paraine,” he said. “The fumes are being blown into the skipper’s cabin through his ventilator. Captain Danvers will be para-happy till we land on that Rigel asteroid, Saxon.”
There was a little silence. Hilton suddenly slammed the panel shut.
“Let’s do some charting,” he said. “The sooner we reach the Rigel port, the sooner we can get back to Earth—via Transmat.”
Curiously, it was Saxon who hesitated.
“Mr. Hilton. Wait a minute, Transmat—I know I work for the outfit, but they—they’re sharp. Business men. You have to pay plenty to use their matter-transmitters.”
“They can transmit a hyper-ship, can’t they? Or is it too big a job?”
“No, they can expand the field enormously. I don’t mean that. I mean they’ll want payment, and they’ll put on the squeeze. You’ll have to give up at least half of the cargo.”
“There’ll still be enough left to pay for an overhaul job.”
“Except they’ll want to know where the paraine came from. You’ll be over a barrel. You’ll have to tell them, eventually. And that’ll mean a Transmat station will be set up right here, on this world.”
“I suppose so,” Hilton said quietly. “But the old lady will be space worthy again. When the skipper sees her after the overhaul, he’ll know it was the only thing to do. So let’s get busy.”
“Remind me to tell you about Silenus,” Ts’ss said.
The Lunar Refitting Station is enormous. A crater has been roofed with a transparent dome, and under it the hyper-ships rest in their cradles. They come in battered and broken, and leave clean and sleek and strong, ready for the Big Night again. La Cucaracha was down there, no longer the groaning wreck that had settled on the Rigel asteroid, but a lovely lady, shining and beautiful.
Far above, Danvers and Hilton leaned on the railing and watched.
“She’s ready to jet,” Hilton said idly. “And she looks good.”
“No thanks to you, mister.”
“Tush for that!” Hilton said. “If I hadn’t doped you, we’d be dead and La Cucaracha floating around in space in pieces. Now look at her.”
“Yeah. Well, she does look good. But she won’t carry another paraine cargo. That strike was mine. If you hadn’t told Transmat the location, we’d be set.” Danvers grimaced. “Now they’re setting up a Transmat station there; a hyper-ship can’t compete with a matter-transmitter.”
“There’s more than one world in the Galaxy.”
“Sure. Sure.” But Danvers’ eyes brightened as he looked down.
“Where are you heading, Skipper?” Hilton said.
“What’s it to you? You’re taking that Transmat job, aren’t you?”
“You bet. I’m meeting Saxon in five minutes. In fact, we’re going down to sign the contracts. I’m through with deep space. But—where are you heading?”
“I don’t know,” Danvers said. “I thought I might run up around Arcturus and see what’s stirring.”
Hilton did not move for a long time. Then he spoke without looking at the captain.
“You wouldn’t be thinking of a stopover at Canis after that, would you?”
“No.”
“You’re a liar.”
“Go keep your appointment,” Danvers said.
Hilton eyed the great hyper-ship below. “The old lady’s always been a nice, clean craft. She’s never got out of line. She’s always charted a straight course. It’d be too bad if she had to carry slaves from Arcturus to the Canis market. It’s illegal, of course, but that isn’t the point. It’s a rotten, crooked racket.”
“I didn’t ask your advice, mister!” Danvers flared. “Nobody’s talking about slave-running!”
“I suppose you weren’t figuring on unloading the
