Prince, bareheaded, but shrouded in his
cloak, showed in a patch of light behind Moa. He looked my way and then
retreated into the lounge archway.

Miko called, "You must yield. We want you, Haljan."

"No doubt," I jeered.

"Alive. It is easy to kill you."

* * * * *

I could not doubt that. Carter and I were little more than rats in a
trap, here in the chart-room. But Miko wanted to take me alive: that was
not so simple. He added persuasively:

"We want you to help us navigate. Will you?"

"No."

"Will you help us, Captain Carter? Tell your cub, this Haljan, to yield.
You are fools. We understand that Haljan has been handling the ship's
mathematics. Him we need most."

Carter roared: "Get back from there! This is no truce!"

I shoved aside his levelled bullet-projector. "Wait a minute!" I called
to Miko. "Navigate--where?"

"Oh," he retorted, "that is our business, not yours. When you lay down
your weapons and come out of there, I will give you the course."

"Back to the earth?" I suggested.

I could fancy him grinning behind the sheen of his barrage at my
question.

"The earth? Yes--shall we go there? Give me your orders, Gregg Haljan.
Of course I will obey them."

His sardonic words were interrupted. And I realized that all this parley
was a ruse of Miko's to take me alive. He had made a gesture. Hahn,
watching from the turret window, doubtless flashed a signal down to the
hull-corridors. The magnetizer control under the chart-room was
altered, our artificial gravity cut off. I felt the sudden lightness; I
gripped the window casement and clung. Carter was startled into
incautious movement. It flung him out into the center of the chart-room,
his arms and legs grotesquely flailing.

* * * * *

And across the chart-room, in the opposite window, I felt rather than
saw the shape of something. A figure--almost invisible, but not
quite--was trying to climb in! I flung the empty rifle I was holding. It
hit something solid in the window; in a flare of sparks a black-hooded
figure materialized. A man climbing in! His weapon spat. There was a
tiny electronic flash, deadly silent. The intruder had shot at Carter;
struck him. Carter gave one queer scream. He had floated to the floor;
his convulsive movement when he was hit hurled him to the ceiling. His
body struck, twitched; bounced back and sank inert on the floor-grid
almost at my feet.

I