orking with some of 'em, too, remember?"

"Oh, I don't try to push anybody around." Stan perched on his bunk.
"Doesn't hurt anyone to study, though."

"Oh, sure." Holme grimaced. "Do you a lot of good, too. Guy's working
on some production run, it helps a lot he knows why all them big guys
in the history books did them things, huh?" He laughed derisively.

"Sure it does! What they want, you should make that fabricator spit
out nice parts, see?" He swelled his chest.

"Now me, I got my mind on my business, see. I get out of here, I
oughta make out pretty good." He looked around the cell.

"Didn't get no parole, see, so I get all the training. Real good
trained machinist now, and I'm gonna walk out of here clean. Get a job
down at the space-yards.

"Machinist helper, see? Then, soon's I been there a while, I'll get my
papers and go contract machinist. Real good money. Maybe you'd do
better, you try that."

* * * * *

From the lower bunk, Big Carl Marlo laughed softly.

"Sure, kid, sure. You got it all made, huh? Pretty quick, you own
Janzel Equipment, huh? Hah! Know what happens, you go outside?

"Sure, they give you a job. Like you said, helper. They pay enough you
get a pad and slop to keep you alive. That's all you get."

"Aw, now listen!" Holme started up.

Marlo wagged his head. "You go for papers, see? Naw! Got no papers for
jailbirds. Staffman'll give you the word. He gets through pushing you
around, you go back, 'counta you don't know nothing else."

He laughed shortly.

"Gopher, that's you. You go fer this, and you go fer that. Slop and a
pad you get." He swung out of his bunk.

"Oh, sure, maybe they put you on a fabricator. Even let you set it up
for 'em. But that don't get you no extra pins."

Holme shook his head.

"Councilor gave me the word," he said stubbornly. "They need good
machinists."

"Yeah." Marlo nodded. "Sure, they want graduates down at Talburg. But
they ain't paying 'em for no contract machinist when they can keep 'em
as helpers." He turned.

"Ain't that right, Pete?"

Karzer looked up from a bag he was packing.

"Yeah, yeah, that's right, Carl. I know a few guys once, tried playing
the legit. Got kicked around, see? Low pay. Staffman hammering on 'em
all the time. Big joke when they try to get more for themselves.

"Yeah, big joke. They get blamed, they bust something, see, so they
owe the company big money." He looked critically at a pa