icate art of forcible entry. He hurled
himself against the panel, again and again, heedless of the pain that
struck in flesh and bone. When the door finally, splinteringly gave
way, he stumbled clear across the room beyond, fetched up against an
instrument console, recovered his balance, and gaped.

The operator lay on the floor, swearing in a steady monotone. He had
been efficiently bound with his own blouse and trousers, which
revealed his predilection for maroon shorts with zebra stripes. There
was a lump on the back of his head, and a hammer lay close by. Ellen
must have stolen the tool and come in here with the thing behind her
back. The operator would have had no reason to suspect her.

She had not left the sender's chair, not even while the door was under
attack. Only a carrier beam connected the Sword with the _Altair_. She
continued doggedly to fumble with dials and switches, trying to
modulate it and raise the ship.

"Praises be ... you haven't had advanced training ... in radio,"
Blades choked. "That's ... a long-range set ... pretty special
system--" He weaved toward her. "Come along, now."

She spat an unladylike refusal.

Theoretically, Blades should have enjoyed the tussle that followed.
But he was in poor shape at the outset. And he was a good deal worse
off by the time he got her pinioned.

"O.K.," he wheezed. "Will you come quietly?"

She didn't deign to answer, unless you counted her butting him in the
nose. He had to yell for help to frog-march her aboard ship.

* * * * *

"_Pallas Castle_ calling NASS _Altair_. Come in, _Altair_."

The great ovoid swung clear in space, among a million cold stars. The
asteroid had dwindled out of sight. A radio beam flickered across
emptiness. Within the hull, the crew and a hundred refugees sat jammed
together. The air was thick with their breath and sweat and waiting.

Blades and Chung, seated by the transmitter, felt another kind of
thickness, the pull of the internal field. Earth-normal weight dragged
down every movement; the enclosed cabin began to feel suffocatingly
small. _We'd get used to it again pretty quickly,_ Blades thought.
_Our bodies would, that is. But our own selves, tied down to Earth
forever--no._

The vision screen jumped to life. "NASS _Altair_ acknowledging _Pallas
Castle_," said the uniformed figure within.

"O.K., Charlie, go outside and don't let anybody else enter," Chung
told his own operator.