s, we're four weeks from any kind of fleet contact."

"Great. In other words, they'll be back here, ready to roll before we
can even tell anybody that we don't know how to find it again."

"Right. And since there's not any room left to park another ship of
that size, it's a pretty safe assumption that they are ready to roll."

"Armageddon," muttered Harcraft.

"You sure we don't have anything to--"

"Weapons? Yeah. We have a pistol and three small nitro paks in a locker
some place. You couldn't even blow your way inside one of those ships.
And if you could, you'd spend two weeks and then blow yourself to hell
before you'd know anything about the armament."

"O.K., let's land and look around. Go get Arnold."

* * * * *

They cut off the sleds and plunged down, landing between two of the
ships. Before putting on suits, Banner sent Arnold to the locker to get
the three nitro paks. He hoped it would help him overcome the terrible
feeling of nakedness and impotence.

They spent only a little time out of the ship. There was nothing to see
that hadn't been seen before, and the heavy artificial gravity
generated by the alien ships--coupled with a maze of deep
crevices--made walking difficult and dangerous.

Back in the control cabin, Banner turned to Harcraft, "Any ideas?"

"Ideas? You mean for saving Homo sapiens? I'm afraid not. I simply do
not feel up to saving six billion sentient organisms today. I feel--"

"You're getting hysterical," said Banner, whose own tight, small voice
was barely audible.

"I got an opinion," said Arnold. "You guys stop crying for a minute and
I'll tell you."

It took him five minutes to explain the whole thing. When he was
through, both Banner and Harcraft turned him down flat. "Not a chance,"
said Banner. It would take a week to set the thing up, and then it
wouldn't work. Our best chance is a long one, but maybe we'll make it.
We're four weeks away from any fleet contact, but it's the only
sensible course of action."

"That makes it a total of eight weeks, with four weeks to get back
here. That's two months," said Arnold. "You think they're gonna wait
two months before they shove out of here?"

"Maybe not," Banner said. "But that's the only thing to do. And the
sooner we get started the better the chances. Let's get going."

"You look here--" Arnold began.

"No more opinions, Bean Brain. You're not entitled to an opinion. You
think w