"But-" Pat began, unconvinced.
"But," Rosaleen overrode her, "in any case they are not our problem. Our problem is merely to detach some of these artifacts and stow them on the Clipper."
Pat nibbled her lower lip in silence. Martin Delasquez, looking at the single cobalt-colored metal lever that Rosaleen had so far detached, said, "You aren't doing very well at that, are you?"
Rosaleen Artzybachova swung around to confront him. "You have some criticism? Would you like to do this yourself? No? That does not surprise me. It is much easier for someone like you to complain than to try to understand how these things are interconnected, or what will happen if we separate them."
"But someone like me," Delasquez said, "does not claim to be an expert on instrumentation. You do, do you not? Isn't that why you are here?"
"I'm earning my way," Rosaleen said grimly. "And I'm not getting paid for my services twice."
Delasquez looked insulted. "Are you referring to the gems I was given? But those were not for me! They were to make it possible to get clearance on such short notice for this flight."
The quarrel distracted Pat Adcock from her thoughts of corpse-eating creatures. "Oh, hell," she said, "what are you fighting about? There's plenty to go around, just as we agreed."
Jimmy Lin cleared his throat. "I think not," he said politely. "You know what I think, Pat? I think we're going to have to re-figure all that."
"The hell with that!" she said sharply. "We made a deal, and we're sticking to it. Remember, Starlab's my satellite! Well, the observatory's," she qualified, "but as far as you're concerned that's the same thing. Starlab was built and launched with my uncle's money, so it's private property. Mine."
Lin gave her a long, bland look. Then he shrugged-not in the manner of someone who is convinced, only in the manner of someone who has decided not to pursue the question for the moment.
However, Dannerman decided as he watched the squabble, Lin was not going to put it off forever. Then there was General Delasquez, silently listening. He was another who was presumably looking forward to renegotiating their arrangements.
Pat Adcock was taking charge. "Right, then. Rosaleen, what do you think? How long will it take you to get this stuff detached?"
"First I have to figure out what it is, Pat."
"Well, damn it, do it!"
The old lady pursed her lips. "I kind of agree with Jimmy," she said. "Why don't we talk about how we're going to split it up?
"Rosaleen! Not you, too!" Pat bit her lip, then surrendered. "All right. We can settle this after we land. What we have to do now is pick out the likeliest items and shift them to the Clipper. When we land in California I've got a crew-" Rosaleen interrupted her sharply. "California?" Pat said apologetically, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, Rosie. We couldn't go back to the Cape, though, could we? The vultures would be waiting to snatch it all away. Anyway, it's all arranged. I've got a crew and a chopper waiting in California. We'll offload as fast as we can and get the stuff to a safe place, and then-"
"We're not landing in California," General Delasquez said.
"Damn it, Martin! You agreed!"
"I have reconsidered the question. We will return to the Cape."
Dannerman sighed softly, because he knew what was coming. The four of them were regarding each other like stray tomcats, paying no attention at all to him.
Pat gave the general a sour look. "Don't be foolish. The arrangements are all made," she said crossly.
Delasquez shook his head. "No. I have also made arrangements. The State of Florida can make good use of this technology. We have suffered under Yanqui tyranny long enough; with this we can have full independence at last."
With the gun in his hand Dannerman spoke up. "And a little something extra for you personally, Martin?" he inquired politely.
That was when it all got rough. Delasquez fumbled for his own gun, tangled in the incongruous gilt-leather holster. Jimmy Lin was also reaching for something, no doubt a weapon of his own, but he didn't get very far. Rosaleen was perched just behind him, still holding the rod of blue metal; she didn't stop to speak but swung it and caught Lin on the side of the head.
"Oh, no, you must not," said a new voice.
Dannerman barely registered the fact that the voice was unfamiliar; he had Delasquez in the sights of his twenty-shot.
Then there was something like a flash-a tingle-a sudden sense of falling, and the weapon never did get fired.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Dan
A while later-he had no idea quite how long it had been- Dannerman blinked and opened his eyes. The other four were stirring around him, and they all looked bewildered. They were in the Clipper, though Dannerman didn't remember going there. He had a recollection of his gun being in his hand, though he wasn't sure why. He glanced hastily around, in case it was floating in the nearby air. It wasn't. He observed General Delasquez looking around in the same befuddled way, and, beyond him, Jimmy Lin, looking perturbed as he rubbed the side of his head. "What the hell happened?" he asked.
Rosaleen Artzybachova said shakily, "I think I must have had a touch of micro-G vertigo."
It looked to Dannerman as though they all had. Everyone seemed dazed, and Pat was weeping softly. "All for nothing," she whimpered. "Hell."
Jimmy Lin said pensively, "Bad enough there wasn't any of that alien technology; even Starlab's own equipment is ruined."
"Ruined," Rosaleen Artzybachova echoed. She sounded more than dazed, Dannerman thought; in fact, really ill. It was her age, most likely, he decided. But she kept on doggedly with the litany of loss: "Electronics fused, power supply ruined-there must've been a plasma arc. A big one. There's nothing left worth salvaging. Might as well start back. We can't do any good here."
Dannerman was scratching the back of his neck-as, for some reason, so were the others-as he was peering into the pilots' screen at Starlab's hull. He pointed at the bulge that had no business being there. "I really thought that was going to be something interesting," he said.
"Just some kind of sticky space glop, I guess," Jimmy Lin said. "All right, get strapped in. We're ready to undock."
Despondently, the five of them took their places, ready for the long return flight to Earth…
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Dan
And at the same time, but a very long way away, Dannerman blinked and opened his eyes… and squawked in unbelieving outrage. In a place he had never seen before, he was being held firmly by two people in Hallowe'en trick-or-treat dress-big ones, with a froth of white concealing their faces and an astonishing number of arms-while a smaller one in a different costume was interestedly, but inexpertly, undoing the flaps of his clothing to undress him. Shouting around him made him look about; all four of his companions were similarly held and two of them, Jimmy Lin and Pat, were already naked. He bellowed, "What the hell happened!"
He wasn't asking anyone in particular, but the goblin who was taking his clothes off gave him an answer-sort of an answer. It seemed to have the body of a large chicken; it gazed up at him out of mournful huge kitten's eyes and worked its slack jaw for a moment, and then it spoke. "Do not struggle. The handlers may damage you."
And Pat Adcock cried, half laughing, "My God, Dan! It's Dopey!"
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Pat
Yes, the chicken with the cat's face did look like the Dopey the transmission from space had warned against; and the pale, bearded giant that never spoke was likely enough the Doc; and that was a subject for wonder; but Pat had other things on her mind. Pat Adcock had had fondly held hopes blighted before. Never like this. She had been so close! After all those interminable, exhausting weeks of court battles and conspiracy there had been that one great, exultant moment when it looked as though all her dreams were paying off…