Feldman didn't hear it, but the others did. He felt Ben shaking his
shoulder, trying to drag him out of the sack. "Grab your junk, Dan."
Ben picked up Feldman's nearly empty bag and tossed it toward him,
before his eyes were fully open. He grabbed for it and missed. He
grabbed again, with Ben's laughter in his ears. The bag hit the wall and
fell open, spilling its contents.
Feldman began gathering it up, but the chief was no longer laughing. A
big hand grabbed up the space ticket suddenly, and there was no
friendliness now on Ben's face.
"Art Billing's card!" Ben told the other tubemen. "Five trips I made
with Art. He was saving his money, going to buy a farm on Mars. Five
trips and one more to go before he had enough. Now you show up with his
ticket!"
The tubemen moved forward toward Feldman. There was no indecision. To
them, apparently, trial had been held and sentence passed.
"Wait a minute," Feldman began. "Billings died of--"
A fist snaked past his raised hand and connected with his jaw. He
bounced off a wall. A wrench sailed toward him, glanced off his arm, and
ripped at his muscles. Another heavy fist struck.
Abruptly, Ben's voice cut through their yells. "Hold it!" He shoved
through the group, tossing men backwards. "Stow it! We can take care of
him later. Right now, this is captain's business. You fools want to lose
your leave?" He indicated two of the others. "You two bring him
along--and keep him quiet!"
The two grabbed Feldman's arms and dragged him along as the chief began
pulling his way forward through the tubes up towards the control section
of the ship. Feldman took a quick glance at their faces and made no
effort to resist; they obviously would have enjoyed any chance to subdue
him.
They were stopped twice by minor officers, then sent on. They finally
found the captain near the exit lock, apparently assisting the
passengers to leave. Most of them went on into the shuttle, but Chris
Ryan remained behind as the captain listened to Ben's report and
inspected the false ticket.
Finally the captain turned to Feldman. "You. What's your name?"
Chris' eyes were squarely on Feldman, cold and furious. "He _was_ Doctor
Daniel Feldman, Captain Marker," she stated.
Feldman stood paralyzed. He'd been unwilling to face Chris. He wanted to
avoid all the past. But the idea that she would denounce him had never
entered his head. There was no Medical rule involved. She knew that as a
pariah he was forbidden to board a passenger ship, of course. But she'd
been his wife once!
Marker bowed slightly to her. "Thank you, Dr. Ryan. I should take this
criminal back to Earth in chains, I suppose. But he's hardly worth the
freightage. You men. Want to take him down to Mars and ground him
there?"
Ben grinned and touched his forelock. "Thank you, sir. We'd enjoy that."
"Good. His pay reverts to the ship's fund. That's all, men."
Feldman started to protest, but a fist lashed savagely against his
mouth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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