t there was the remnant of a shop on the yacht that Hoddan had in hand
for his errand to Walden. He'd told the emigrant leaders that he went to
ask for charity. He'd just assured his followers that their journey was
for piracy. Now--

He began to empty the cubbyhole of all the items that had been packed
into it for storage. It had been very ingenious, this miniature repair
shop. The lathe was built in with strength-members of the walls as part
of its structure. The drill press was recessed. The welding apparatus
had its coils and condensers under the floor. The briefest of
examinations showed the condensers to be in bad shape, and the coils
might be hopeless. But there was good material used in the old days.
Hoddan began to have quite unreasonable hopes.

He went back to the control room to meditate.

He'd had a reasonably sound plan of action for the pirating of a
space-liner, even though he had no weapons mounted on the ship nor
anything more deadly than stun-pistols for his reluctant crew. But he
considered it likely that he could make the same sort of landing with
this yacht that he'd already done with the spaceboat. Which should be
enough.

If he waited off Walden until a liner went down to the planet's great
spaceport, he could try it. He would go into a close orbit around Walden
which would bring him, very low, over the landing grid within an hour or
so of the liner's landing. He'd turn the yacht end for end and apply
full rocket power for deceleration. The yacht would drop like a stone
into the landing grid. Everything would happen too quickly for the grid
crew to think of clapping a force field on it, or for them to manage it
if they tried. He'd be aground before they realized it.

The rest was simply fast action. Hoddan and seven Darthians,
stun-pistols humming, would tumble out of the yacht and dash for the
control room of the grid. Hoddan would smash the controls. Then they'd
rush the landed liner, seize it, shoot down anybody who tried to oppose
them, and seal up the ship.

And then they'd take off. On the liner's rockets, which were carried for
emergency landing only, but could be used for a single take-off. After
one such use they'd be exhausted. And with the grid's controls smashed,
nobody could even try to stop them.

It wasn't a bad idea. He had a good deal of confidence in it. It was the
reason for his Darthian crew. Nobody'd expect such a thing to be tried,
so it almost certainly could be don