ice again."

I turned to Kramer. He was staring at the video image. "Report yourself
back to arrest in quarters, Kramer," I said. "I'll take your services
today into account at your court-martial."

Kramer looked up, with a nasty grin. "I don't know what kind of talking
oysters you're trafficking with, but I'd laugh like hell if they
vaporized your precious tub as soon as they're through with you." He
walked out.

Mannion called in again from ComSection. "Here's their last, Captain,"
he said. "They say we're lucky they had a good supply of this protein
aboard. It's one of their most amusing foods. It's a creature they
discovered in the wild state and it's very rare. The wild ones have died
out, and only their domesticated herds exist."

"O.K., we're lucky," I said. "It better be good or we'll step up the
amperage and burn their batteries for them."

"Here's more," Mannion said. "They say it will take a few hours to
prepare the cargo. They want us to be amused."

I didn't like the delay, but it would take us about 10 hours to deliver
the juice to them at the trickle rate they wanted. Since the sample was
O.K., I was assuming the rest would be too. We settled down to wait.

I left Clay in charge on the bridge and made a tour of the ship. The
meeting with the alien had apparently driven the mood of mutiny into the
background. The men were quiet and busy. I went to my cabin and slept
for a few hours.

* * * * *

I was awakened by a call from Clay telling me that the alien had
released his cargo for us. Mannion's crew was out making the pick-up.
Before they had maneuvered the bulky cylinder to the cargo hatch, the
alien released our power lead.

I called Kramer and told him to meet the incoming crew and open and
inspect the cargo. If it was the same as the sample, I thought, we had
made a terrific trade. Discipline would recover if the men felt we still
had our luck.

Then Mannion called again. "Captain," he said excitedly, "I think there
may be trouble coming. Will you come down, sir?"

"I'll go to the bridge, Mannion," I said. "Keep talking."

I tuned my speaker down low and listened to Mannion as I ran for the
lift.

"They tell us to watch for a little display of Mancji power. They ran
out some kind of antenna. I'm getting a loud static at the top of my
short wave receptivity."

I ran the lift up and as I stepped onto the bridge I said, "Clay, stand
by to fire."

As soo