d obstinately open, its servo
refusing to close on a mold full of air and rotate air back for
release into space.

Bryce remembered then. This was something he didn't have to bother
with when he flew alone, for when going in or out he was always in the
door when it rotated; it never turned empty. Beside the door on a hook
hung an inflated pressure suit, complete with gloves, boots, and
helmet. Except for the absence of any sign of a head or face inside
the dark translucence of the helmet it looked like a full-sized man.
Bryce reached it down and placed it in the mold, and watched grinning
as the mold closed and the door rotated, delivering the man-form to an
equivalent hook in the spacelock. The doll was known by all spacemen
as Hector Dimwitty, and every ship had one or two. There were a
thousand yarns and jokes circulating about the adventures of the
Hectors, most of them lewd, and a few of them true.

Pierce's answer was in his earphones, "A frontier is where people go
when they are young, broke, or have the cops after them."

"Right. Suppose I stake the broke, and loan them transport, and offer
the fugitives unregistered safety to receive mail and to buy
supplies?"

"You do that?" Pierce stepped out of the door and they took off their
helmets.

"Yes, when I am my own man, not working for UT."

"If you do that, you bring in ten times as many of the broke who
wanted to settle there, and--" Pierce took a long jump in
understanding, saying softly, "They're dependent on you. Handcuffed to
you and praying for your health and prosperity as long as you hold
their loans and secrets, for with your death or bankruptcy, another
man might come to your books to read the records of your loans, and
demand payment, and give the secrets to the police or keep them for
his blackmail. But to do it is to take a risk of murder or arrest, and
a high cost in hard work and money. Why do you want to do this? What
payment do you take?"

"They pay by being my men, grateful and ready to back me up when I
want help later. They don't have to be grateful, for they know I can
call any loan if the owner crosses me, and I've built a reputation for
an occasional fit of irrational temper that is threat enough for
anyone to avoid crossing me, without feeling that I have wanted to
threaten or force them. As for the fugitives they pay enough by
wanting the Belt to be organized as a nation independent of Earth, so
that the hand of the law can't st