arkaman finally added his voice to theirs.

"You take it easy, Lucas." They had dropped formality and were
on a first-name basis now. "You got hulled pretty badly; you let
damage-control work on you, and don't strain the machinery till
it's fixed. We have plenty of time. We're not going to get anywhere
chasing Dunnan. The only way we can catch him is by interception.
The longer he moves around in the Old Federation before he hears
we're after him, the more of a trail he'll leave. Once we can
establish a predictable pattern, we'll have a chance. Then, some
time, he'll come out of hyperspace somewhere and find us waiting
for him."

"Do you think he went to Tanith?"

Harkaman heaved himself out of his chair and prowled about the room
for a few minutes, then came back and sat down again.

"No. That was Duke Angus' idea, not his. He couldn't put in a base
on Tanith, anyhow. You know the kind of a crew he has."

There had been an extensive inquiry into Dunnan's associates and
accomplices; Duke Angus was still hoping for positive proof to
implicate Omfray of Glaspyth in the piracy. Dunnan had with him
a dozen and a half employees of the Gorram shipyards whom he had
corrupted. There was some technical ability among them, but for the
most part they were agitators and trouble-makers and incompetent
workmen. Even under the circumstances, Alex Gorram was glad to see
the last of them. As for Dunnan's own mercenary company, there were
about a score of former spacemen among them; the rest graded down
from bandits through thugs and sneak-thieves to barroom bums.
Dunnan himself was an astrogator, not an engineer.

"That gang aren't even good enough for routine raiding," Harkaman
said. "They'd never under any circumstances be able to put in a base
on Tanith. Unless Dunnan's completely crazy, which I doubt, he's gone
to some regular Viking base planet, like Hoth or Nergal or Dagon or
Xochitl, to recruit officers and engineers and able spacemen."

"All that machinery and robotic equipment and so on that was going
to Tanith--was that aboard when he took the ship?"

"Yes, and that's another reason why he'd go to some planet like Hoth
or Nergal or Xochitl. On a Viking-occupied planet in the Old
Federation, that stuff's almost worth its weight in gold."

"What's Tanith like?"

"Almost completely Terra-type, third of a Class-G sun. Very much
like Haulteclere or Flamberge. It was one of the last planets the
Federation colonized befo