e-last blink put the tug's metal side mere inches from the shadowy metal cliff of Rimfire's portside. In normal space it would have been simple. He would merely have snaked a cable over, and the field of the generator would have traveled down the cable to lift Rimfire back. However, to exist where Rimfire had solidity, he was in a state of frozen time, unable to blink an eye, much less control a cable. It had to be a hull contact. And since no one had ever blinked a ship into actual hull contact he had a few nightmare visions inspired by that man-made sculpture out in deep space, a ship fused, sharing a molecular bone with a stone asteroid. Nineteen minutes. Within a few seconds there could very well be another frozen sculpture in space, or in near space, a shadow of two ships, a huge X&A ship and a stubby tug blended together forever and ever, molecules intermixed, flesh become a mixture of metal and all the elements which went into the construction of the two ships. He used a precious few seconds kissing Jan. She felt, then, her first fear. Until that time she'd had total confidence. The kiss, the way he clung to her, told her that there was, indeed, danger. «You know,» Pete said, releasing her, sitting down, his fingers poised over the blink button, «I've dreamed about this moment from the first day I set foot on a tug. I've envisioned latching onto a big, rich ship. I've repeated a phrase a million times in my mind. Lord, how I'd like to be able to say to this ship, 'Captain, do you accept a Lloyd's?' « «I know, darling,» she said. «I know.» «And here I'm about to latch onto the most expensive, most valuable ship ever built, pull her out of trouble, and I'm not even going to be able to talk.» «It's all right,» she said. «We'll have a planet.» If it worked. If Rimfire had a neutralizer. If it wasn't already too late. «Ready?» «Hold my hand.» He squeezed her hand hard, pushed the button. A metallic, clanging thud was in his ears, remaining there for eons. All of his vital organs, all that was within him, his life force, his everything, seemed to flow up his arm and blend where their flesh made contact with all that was Jan. Chapter Twelve Captain Dean Richards, having reviewed all he had ever been exposed to in the way of mathematics, amused himself for a few thousand years figuring exactly how far his hand had moved. He'd started it toward his forehead to brush back his hair a few eternities past and it had moved exactly .0000000 0001211 millimeters. It would be interesting to calculate, in units of near infinity, how long he'd feel the tickle of the lock of hair. Tiring of that, Richards began at the beginning again. He knew the first moment of sensation. He was in the womb. He could feel the thump-thump of his mother's heart, hear the singing sound of blood in his tiny, forming veins. After a few times through a lifetime, things were revealed which had been lost in the haste or excitement of the moment in actual life. He found that he could concentrate on things he had seen with peripheral vision only and create almost a new set of lifetime awareness. The brain was, he had found, a most marvelous organ. He was astounded by the things it had stored, things which he hadn't even noticed at the time. Lord, what an educational tool! He could review, word by word, thought by thought, every book he'd ever read. He could extend theory. He was a mental superman, but he was helpless. And then the damned ship's alarm system clanged and clanged and Julie Rainbow was looking up at him with wide eyes. «Object in hull contact, sir,» Julie said. He had not fully recovered. He was still living an interesting, forgotten segment of his life. And things were happening too fast. The alarm was clanging and people were leaping to stations and a voice came at him from the bulkheads and all the metal in the ship. «Captain,» the voice said, «do you accept a Lloyd's?» «What in holy hell?» Dean Richards said. Chapter Thirteen He had to say it. He just had to say it. He'd just undergone an eternity of closeness with Jan which was unlike any other experience of his life, their souls, everything that was them blended and aware at the point of contact, their closely held hands. And he'd lived his life again, knew that with the knowledge he'd accumulated in deep, word-by-word study of every book he'd ever read he could breeze through any exam the Academy could throw at him and then teach the professors a thing or two. All that, and he still had to say, «Captain, do you accept a Lloyd's?» He sent the question through the cable communications system and it reverberated in the hull of the Lady. Then he clicked on the voice communicator. «Identify,» Rimfire sent. «U.P.S tug Ramco Lady Sandy.» Pete said. «This is Captain Dean Richards, U.P.S. Rimfire. I see no reason to understand your question.» «You did seconds or eternities ago, Captain,» Pete said. Dean Richards brushed the lock of hair back from his forehead. Yes, the man was right. But now Rimfire was functioning perfectly. «Captain Richards,» Pete said, «we can talk about that later. This is a vital question. Do you have a planet-buster neutralizer on board?» Richards was still trying to clear his head. «That, sir, is service business, not yours,» he said. Fifteen minutes. Pete's fingers flew. He felt the strange, eerie tug, knew that suspended, timeless feeling. He passed it going over the little he'd ever read about planet busters and neutralizers. Then they were back in normal space again. «Captain Richards,» he said, «you have an empty generator.» He was angry. Seconds were ticking away. Jan's beautiful planet was just under fourteen minutes away from destruction. «You can't blink. Answer my question or I'll blink you back and leave you there until I can get messages back to New Earth and get a fleet ship out here.» «That is classified information,» Richards said. «My God, man, a planet's going to blow up,» Pete shouted into the communicator. «I can explain everything later.» «Yes, we have a neutralizer.» «How long will it take to get it activated and to do the job?» «Hold one,» Richards said. Paul Victor, rubbing his eyes in puzzlement, had come into the control room. Richards put the question to him. «Activate in two minutes,» Paul said. «In position, five minutes to do the job. Maybe a little more if there's a great deal of heavy metal in the planet's crust.» «Get it going,» Richards said. He'd let the whole exchange be broadcast to the tug which was in hull contact with the Rimfire. Even as he gave the order he felt the Rimfire blink. The tug had moved him. More alarms sounded. He checked visuals and saw a water planet quite close. Ten minutes. «The buster is immediately under the fortified position directly below,» Pete said. «We have nine minutes and twenty seconds and counting.» Paul Victor looked up quickly. He'd started warming the neutralizer. It had one minute and thirty seconds to go before it was ready. He spoke into the communicator. «Young man,» he said, «it's going to be close. I'd suggest that you be prepared to blink us to hell out of here.» «Just neutralize that thing,» Pete said. «Neutralizer activated,» Paul said. Pete looked at the chronometer. Six minutes, thirty seconds. Jan was at his side, tense, her hand on his shoulder, her eyes on the visuals to get, she felt, what might be her last look at her beautiful planet. She'd seen Pete punch in a blink coordinate. She knew that he was ready to blink both ships out of the range of the devastating explosion. «There's a planet buster down there, all right,» Paul Victor said, as he sent the neutralizing beam out and down to flash through the planet's crust. «And there's one hell of a lot of heavy metal.» He had six minutes and five seconds to kill the capacity to react in a hydrogen warhead. «It will be very, very close,» Paul said. «Keep the tug skipper posted,» Richards told him. «It's old,» Paul said, «but it's alive. Good, strong reading. Going down slowly.» Jan reached for Pete's hand, praying at the same time. She was careful not to hold the hand which was poised over the blink button. There was just enough charge left in the Lady's generator to lift both ships to safety. Four minutes. Three. Two. At sixty seconds, Pete began to count down. «Lady Sandy,» Paul Victor said, «we're not going to make it. I'm sorry.» «Forty-nine,» Pete counted. «Forty-eight.» He'd lost it all. No Lloyd's on the Rimfire. No planet. And one hell of a lot of explaining to do. «Fusion potential coming down,» Paul said tensely, watching the clock, hearing the tug captain's countdown. «Thirty,» Pete counted. «Twenty-nine.» «Get us out of here,» Dean Richards said. «Now.» «Twenty-five. Twenty-f—» He jerked to attention, his finger jabbing at the blink button at the same time. The damned thing had gone off early. He saw it clearly, saw it in full Tri-D color on the viewer, saw the old fortification tremble and buckle upward, and as his finger hit the blink button and the viewer went black he saw just a beginning burst of fire dissolve the domed roof of the fort. «We lost it all, honey,» he said, the ship back in normal space. «Lady Sandy, where are we?» Dean Richards asked. Rimfire's computer was working. He'd have coordinates within seconds, but his viewers showed nothingness, blackness. Pete, in a dull voice, gave Rimfire the coordinates of the position. He'd blinked back to the midpoint beacon, back toward the galaxy and the New Earth range. He felt drained. His head hurt. With all the renewed knowledge in his head he couldn't imagine how he'd explain all of the events of the past few hours to a service inquiry board. They'd have a ball with just one aspect of it, how he and Jan came to be in command of the Ramco Lady Sandy. All the proof, all the evidence, was flying outward from a central point in fragments and molten lava. No planet. No salvage contract. No job. He stood, pulled Jan into his arms. He had that. Yes, he had that. «Sir,» the voice said on the communicator, «I'd like to know your name.» Pete gave it. «Captain Jaynes,» Richards said, «we're beginning to piece things together a bit over here. I have many questions. I'd like to suggest that you suit up and enter Rimfire through the hatch just astern of you.» It was, Pete knew, not a suggestion. It was an order. He wasn't about to go anywhere without Jan. They suited up. The cold of space is a tangible thing. It can crystallize metal. It can make itself felt through the best-insulated spacesuit, if only psychologically. They moved along the Lady's hull clinging to safety lines, magnetic shoes clomping on the hull. Line at his waist, Pete pushed himself, floating, from the Lady's stern, contacted the hull of the Rimfire feet-first, pulled Jan across. Two efficient service ratings helped them out of their suits once the airlock had filled, led them forward to the control room. All of Rimfire's officers were congregated there. Julie Rainbow was at her post. Pete accepted the outstretched hand of the Rimfire's captain, introduced Jan, shook hands with the other officers. «Well,» Pete said, feeling very, very tired, «there's a lot of explaining to do.» Richards smiled, waved them to a seat. «I think we already have a few of the answers, Captain.» Rimfire's crew had been working during the period of time it took Pete and Jan to cross over and enter the X&A ship. «I want to confirm one thing, first,» Richards said. «May I look at your watch?» Pete's wristwatch was standard service issue. He held his arm out, crooking his wrist so that Richards could see the face. Richards whistled and help up his own wrist, but Pete had already checked the control-room chronometer. «Captain,» Richards said, «in view of this I think we can have a little talk, later, about that Lloyd's contract you mentioned. My engineer, Mr. Victor, tells me that some abnormality in our generator got us caught up in subspace. Is that your opinion?» «Captain,» Pete said, «it's a long story, and I'll be happy to tell it to you. I have only one request. Well, two. First, we'd love a cup of good service coffee, and I'd like your word that you'll listen to the entire thing before you start asking questions. It seems that all the proof of what is going to seem like a bunch of wild lies went up with our planet.» Julie Rainbow was already in motion. She had two steaming mugs of coffee within seconds. «You said your planet,» Richards prompted, as Pete sipped. «Captain,» Julie Rainbow said, «excuse me.» Richards looked at her with one raised eyebrow. The girl was never going to learn not to interrupt. It seemed ages ago and only days ago that he'd told her— «Captain,» Julie persisted, «that planet. It's still there.» Jan leaped to her feet. Julie nodded. «I just put the long-range detectors on it.» Rimfire's detectors were vastly superior to the detectors on board a tug. «I wanted to see what a planet buster did, and it's still there.» Jan had spilled coffee when she leaped to her feet. It didn't matter. She put her mug down and started doing a little dance of joy. She pulled Pete to his feet and hugged him. «It's still there,» she whispered. «It's still there.» «Captain,» Pete said, «before I start talking, can we check out Jan's Planet visually? What's on that planet will answer a lot of questions.» «I don't want to risk a blink with the Rimfire, not until I know what the hell happened,» Richards said. Pete turned to the computer, and even as Richards started to protest, his fingers flew. «It's all right. I'll explain later. It's a simple matter of tuning the generator. I didn't take time to do that. I just programmed instruction.» And with that, even as Paul Victor lunged at him, he pressed the blink button, and they all froze, felt the eerie, old mode, and were back in space within visual of a beautiful blue-and-white water world, one of the most beautiful sights in the universe, a life-zone planet. «There was a nuclear blast,» Paul Victor said, after examining instruments. «Either it was too weak to trigger the buster, or the buster malfunctioned.» There was a crater at the site of the old fort, edges glazed by heat. There'd been some radiation released into the air, but nothing which would give anyone any problems. The site of the explosion itself could be cleared by an antiradiation team in a couple of months. «And now, young man,» Paul Victor said, «I want to know what you meant when you said something about tuning a generator.» «I have some questions first,» Richards said. «I think they'll all be answered as I go through it,» Pete said, grinning down at an ecstatic Jan. «Two things first.» «Coffee?» Julie Rainbow asked, coming to her feet. «Yes, thank you,» Pete said. «Then I'll record our claim to the planet on the Rimfire's permanent tapes, just to make it doubly official.» «And then maybe you'll be kind enough to tell us what the hell has been happening,» Richards said. «Be glad to, sir,» Pete said, unable to control the grin, feeling Jan at his side, soft-warm and wonderful. Chapter Fourteen The atmospace yacht Jan's Planet, cleared for approach and landing at Rimfire Spaceport, zapped down with a flair, leveling and stopping just before disastrous impact seemed imminent. She skimmed the pad, settled in front of a large, private hangar. White-clad attendants swarmed around her as the hatch opened. Directly behind her a service launch made a more sedate approach, a slow, careful landing, eased to come to rest near the Jan's Planet. Again the white-clad attendants scurried. They met halfway between the ships, a rather handsome foursome, a fleet admiral in service blue, a fleet captain, dainty, pretty even in the severe uniform, and a sportily dressed couple who came from Jan's Planet hand in hand. Captain Julie Rainbow ran a few steps forward to kiss first Jan, then Pete. Dean Richards, his temples showing a bit of distinguished gray, embraced Jan and shook Pete's hand. The four boarded Jan's Planet. Pete had given the crew time off, so there were just the four of them as the sleek yacht soared vertically and then leveled and shot into the stratosphere and into near space on a ballistic trajectory. «Good Lord,» Julie laughed, as the trajectory peaked and she felt that over-the-hump quick kiss of momentary weightlessness. «That's the first time I've done that since I was a kid in trainers.» «Pete's in his second childhood,» Jan said. «Nothing too good for real heroes,» Pete said. «First to circumnavigate the galaxy, discoverers of humpteen new life-zone planets.» Dean Richards was using the visuals. «Richardsville has grown,» he said. «Namesake of the principal city on Jan's Planet,» Pete went on. «Want me to do the kiss-me-quick again?» «I came here to see a museum,» Dean