e and you wanted
war. Now you have it. Kill me to soothe your conscience, because the
truth is something you can't face up to."

With a bellow of rage Kerk drove the pile-driver fist down.

Meta grabbed the arm in both her hands and hung on, pulling it aside
before the blow could land. The three of them fell together, half
crushing Jason.

"Don't do it," she screamed. "Jason didn't want those men to go down
there. That was your idea. You can't kill him for that!"

Kerk, exploding with rage, was past hearing. He turned his attention to
Meta, tearing her from him. She was a woman and her supple strength was
meager compared to his great muscles. But she was a Pyrran woman and she
did what no off-worlder could. She slowed him for a moment, stopped the
fury of his attack until he could rip her hands loose and throw her
aside. It didn't take him long to do this, but it was just time enough
for Jason to get to the door.

* * * * *

Jason stumbled through, and jammed shut the lock behind him. A split
second after he had driven the bolt home Kerk's weight plunged into the
door. The metal screamed and bent, giving way. One hinge was torn loose
and the other held only by a shred of metal. It would go down on the
next blow.

Jason wasn't waiting for that. He hadn't stayed to see if the door would
stop the raging Pyrran. No door on the ship could stop him. Fast as
possible, Jason went down the gangway. There was no safety on the ship,
which meant he had to get off it. The lifeboat deck was just ahead.

Ever since first seeing them, he had given a lot of thought to the
lifeboats. Though he hadn't looked ahead to this situation, he knew a
time might come when he would need transportation of his own. The
lifeboats had seemed to be the best bet, except that Meta had told him
they had no fuel. She had been right in one thing--the boat he had been
in had empty tanks, he had checked. There were five other boats, though,
that he hadn't examined. He had wondered about the idea of useless
lifeboats and come to what he hoped was a correct conclusion.

This spaceship was the only one the Pyrrans had. Meta had told him once
that they always had planned to buy another ship, but never did. Some
other necessary war expense managed to come up first. One ship was
really enough for their uses. The only difficulty lay in the fact they
had to keep that ship in operation or the Pyrran city was dead. Without
suppl