in, aimed her weapon downward only to see Dent use the last of his jet fuel to put himself in firing position. The fourth man died while he was trying to get situated to shoot at Erin. «Hold your fire,» she sent to Dent. «They're dead.» Denton was standing quite still, saffer dangling from his gloved hand. One of the dead was a brown-haired woman and it was evident that he was greatly affected by the knowledge that he had killed her. Erin saw that his eyes were wide, that his lips were trembling. «You did well,» she said. «You saved my life.» «I never killed anyone before.» «Do you think I make a habit of it?» «You were so cool, so unconcerned.» «You couldn't have driven a nail up my anus with a sledge hammer,» she said. «You are so damned dainty.» «Thank you, love.» She moved away, turned back. «If you're ready to quit bleeding over those bastards who tried to kill both of us—» They approached the ship from her stern, moving with great caution. The last hundred yards was in the open. She bled half of her jet propellant into Dent's suit. Side by side, they soared to the cover of the ship's flux mount. «What if there's someone inside?» Denton asked, as they moved slowly and carefully toward the outer lock. Erin didn't answer. She examined the lock. «No way we'll figure the combination,» she said. The suit's air timer showed that she had thirty-seven minutes before going on reserve. She lifted her saffer. «If the inner hatch is open you'll get explosive decompression,» Denton warned. «Yep,» she said, narrowing the beam to a pinpoint cutting frequency. Metal gave off gases that quickly disappeared into the merciless vacuum of space. A rush of air through the hole that she'd cut in the hatch scattered the residue left from the cutting operation. «The inner hatch was closed,» she said. In the air lock she turned as the outer hatch slid shut, stuffed the hole where the lock had been with a cloth used to wipe dust off the glass of her helmet. «Here goes,» she said, putting her hand on the air control. Denton lifted his gloved hand and tried unsuccessfully to cross his fingers. Air hissed into the lock. The makeshift patch held, although, as the lock filled, escaping air made a whistling noise. The inner hatch opened. Erin, weapon at the ready, stepped into the suit closet. It was empty. She opened a door cautiously and moved into a corridor. «Well, you're back,» Gordon Plough said. Erin whirled. A uniformed man was standing in a doorway, a saffer dangling from his right hand. Erin's arm moved only slightly. Gordon Plough died before he had time to understand that his plan had not worked, at least not for him. He had one nanosecond of puzzlement as to why one of his own crew was lifting a saffer at him. «Damn, Erin,» Dent protested. «Look in his right hand,» Erin said harshly. Denton walked to the dead man, saw the weapon in his hand, swallowed, looked away quickly. Erin made a quick check of the rest of the ship. There were permanent quarters for four crew members and a temporary setup for another. Five in all. All of them accounted for with four dead outside on the surface of the asteroid and one in the corridor. Erin approached the computer, a first generation Unicloud, not state of the art but years newer than Mother's old Century Series. There were files for the usual star charts. The ship's papers gave her the name, the Murdoch Miner, and told her that the ship was registered on Haven in the name of the Haven Refining Company, the firm that had bought her first cargo of ore. She got a mental picture of Murdoch Plough, tall, self-centered. So, she thought, he hadn't taken it so lightly after all when X&A put the strong arm on him and forced him to pay a fair price for her gold. «Well, I guess that's it,» Denton said. «I guess it's back to the nearest civilized planet to call—» He shook his head. «Who do you call? You can't call the nearest policeman.» «X&A,» she said. «The Service handles any crime in space.» She was pushing buttons. «Time enough for that later. Right now we've got to find Mother. « «Oh, hell, poor Mop,» he said. «I'll bet he thinks we've deserted him for sure.» She lifted ship. The Miner was much more agile than the old Mule. She circled past the asteroid and headed out into the big empty roughly on the vector followed by Mother. The Miner's state of the art detectors had the Mule on screen within seconds. After that it was a matter of closing with Mother, of sending Denton out into the void again. «Put Mother down where she was when it all started,» she told Dent. «And you?» His voice was slightly distorted by space as it came from Mother by radio. «Beside you,» she said. She refilled her suit's tanks, left the outer hatch of the Miner open when she left her. «How's Mr. Mop?» she asked, as she stood on the bare rock. «I think he was happy to see me.» «I need your help out here, Dent.» «All right. Let me get suited up.» «I wouldn't ask, but I can't do it all alone.» He emerged from Mother into full sun that glared off his suit. She was already moving one of the bodies toward the Miner. «Bring the woman,» she told him. An hour and a half later they had put all four bodies, two men and two women, aboard the Miner to join the body of the man Erin had killed aboard ship. «What are you going to do?» Denton asked. «Lock onto her and take her back to the nearest U.P. planet?» They were standing near the mining ship with the crowded core star fields gleaming harshly over them. Starlight reflected off the treated glass of their helmets. Erin took a deep breath. «Why did we come out here, Dent?» «Am I supposed to answer?» «I wish you would.» «For gold.» «For how much gold?» «For enough so that neither one of us would ever have to worry about money again.» «Have we gathered that much gold?» «Nope,» he said. «But listen, Erin—» «Why did they—» she moved her gloved hand in the direction of the Miner— «come out here?» «For gold.» «And they were perfectly willing to kill us to get it. All of it.» «Where are you going with this, Erin?» «Do you have any idea what sort of red tape we'd have to go through if we show up on Haven or some other U.P. planet with five dead people?» He shook his head. «I'll tell you this. You'd be old and gray before you finished filling in forms, being tested to see if you were telling the truth, and answering questions. I don't have time for that. I didn't ask these people to follow us out here and try to kill us.» «I don't think I'm going to like this,» Dent said. «I'm ex-X&A, and I'd still be put through the wringer,» she said. «I've paid my dues. I spent six years on Rimfire. I don't want to spend two years explaining to a board of inquiry how we got lucky enough to kill five people who were trying to kill us.» «What do you have in mind?» he asked doubtfully. «I'm going to go aboard and program a timed blink into that computer,» she said, and her eyes turned toward the nearest sun, an atomic furnace that would swallow the Murdoch Miner and her dead easily and with finality. «I don't know, Erin. We're walking the line by not reporting Old Smiley and the other bones. I'm not sure I want to go that far across the line.» «Then just go on back to Mother and tell Mop I'll be along shortly and I'll take care of it. Your conscience will be clear.» He grunted once, twice, shook his head. «No,» he said, «you've done enough. You took charge. You saved our lives. You wait here.» He disappeared into the bowels of the ship. A few minutes later Erin's hair tried to stand on end as the blink generator was activated. Denton came hurrying out of the air lock as if he were being pursued by the ghosts of the Miner's dead. «Thirty minutes,» he said. «Plenty of time for us to get back to Mother and get the hell out of here.» They bounced and jetted their way back to the ship in silence. When the inner air lock hatch opened, Mr. Mop went wild with joy on seeing them both, walking on his rear legs, gnawing on them playfully. Erin picked him up and scratched his belly. Dent went on through to the bridge and soon Mother lifted away. «It just occurred to me,» she said, «that they might have left some trace of their presence on the asteroid.» «Not to worry,» he said, positioning Mother so that they could see the Miner on her rocky perch. He checked his watch. «About—now,» he said. The Miner and the asteroid winked out of existence. Mother's sensors followed the blink. The mass of ship and rock continued to exist for one brief moment in the corona of the nearest star before being broken down into basic subatomic building blocks. Neither of them felt like working. Erin checked Mother's orbit, made sure that she was clear of any strays from the belt, said, «I'm going to bed.» «Drink first?» She shook her head in negation, went to her quarters, showered, put on a lacy nightgown and threw herself down onto the bed. The elation of victory over dangerous odds was gone. The stimulation of facing deadly danger had left her drained. A storm of melancholy submerged her in guilt. She slept. She awoke with Mop pawing at her hand and making begging noises. «What? What?» she asked. Mop leapt to the floor and ran to the door, which she'd left ajar so that he could perform his duty of keeping an eye on both her and Denton. He whined and ran back to the bed, jumped up, pawed at her leg, ran to the door. Fear came to her. «Something wrong, partner?» she asked, as she ran out onto the bridge. Dent was sprawled in the control chair, head thrown back, mouth open. He was snoring. Mop leaped up into his lap and whined. «He's just asleep,» Erin whispered. Mop pawed at Denton's lax hand. There was a strong smell of brandy. «And a little drunk,» she said. Denton said, «You're wrong, lady.» «It talks,» she said. «I'm more'n a little bit drunk.» «Good for you.» He opened his eyes. They were red, as if he'd been weeping. «Come on,» she said, «I'll help you get into your bed.» «Let's go fin' some more people to kill,» he mumbled. «Denton—» » 'Cause you seemed to enjoy it.» «You and the horse you rode in on,» she said, turning to go back to her cabin. «I killed me a woman and I killed me a man,» he said, «an' 'en I scooped 'em up and put 'em in their little ole spaceship and zapped 'em into a sun.» She turned. Huge tears were running down his cheeks. She went back to him, put her hands on his face. «Would you rather it had been you and me?» «Me? Maybe. You?» He looked at her with eyes that wouldn't quite focus. «Never you, Erin. Never you. Beautiful Erin.» She took his arm. «Come on, buddy. You're going beddy-bye.» «Pretty Erin,» he mumbled, leaning on her shoulder. She knew that she could never hoist him onto his elevated bunk. She guided him to her bed. He fell onto his back and dragged her with him so that she landed atop him. «Had to do it,» he said. «Had to kill 'em. They woulda killed my Erin.» «Hush,» she said. «Go to sleep.» His eyes opened wide. «I never killed anyone before.» «Hush. I know.» «It hurts.» «I know.» «I didn't want to kill them.» She kissed him lightly on the lips. He tasted of brandy. «I know.» «Did you want to kill them?» «No,» she said. «Do 'at again.» «What?» «This,» he said, pulling her face to him. He did not kiss like a drunk. His arms were strong. She did not resist as he rolled her onto her back and let his hands discover that her nightgown fell away with a simple tug at a tie around her neck. She helped him undress, for she, too, had faced death and had delivered death, had seen the color of blood and had smelled the odor as it gave an entirely new dimension to the recycled air aboard the Murdoch Miner. But there was more involved than the age-old desire of a man and a woman to affirm that, after being near death, they were alive. After the first cooling of mutual passion she lay with her head on his shoulder and watched him sleep. When he moved in the middle of the night she, too, awakened quickly. When he whispered his love to her, she could almost form the words to answer him. Dent was awake and about the next morning before Mr. Mop decided that it was high time for Erin to get out of bed. Mop licked her nose and made urging noises in his throat. Erin groaned, sat up, reached for the cover, for she was nude. Then she remembered and made a disgusted face. She went directly to the shower. Demon was eating breakfast when she went onto the bridge. He didn't speak, but his eyes were questioning. For a moment her face was grim, and then she remembered the taste of him, the feel of him, the goodness of being in his arms. No, she could not regret what had happened. «Hi,» she said. «Hi, yourself.» She went to him, kissed him. «You're not angry,» he said. «Should I be?» «I wasn't sure. Your bed. I remember you said that you thought a bed was as personal as underwear.» «I'm very careful about lending my underwear,» she said. «I'm even more picky about sharing my body.» His face turned red. She laughed. «Erin, I—» «If you apologize, I'll slug you,» she said. «But—» «Hush,» she said, closing his mouth with hers. Mop, wanting to get into the play, leapt onto Denton's lap, stood on his rear legs, and tried to lick them both in the face. «Now look, you hairy little monster,» Denton said, «you can sleep on my bed and sit in my lap, but when it comes to sharing my girl with you—» CHAPTER NINE Once again they had made love. Mop, who had been banished to a spot