The girl came across the deck, her expression flooded with relief. "I'm glad now I didn't kill you. I—I was frightened. You believe that?" "Sure." "I've never dared tell anybody what I was forced to tell you. I've lived for two years in absolute terror. I was desperate." "Sure." "You don't believe me?" "Not altogether," he admitted. His hand didn't leave his chest. "Why should I?" Nadia bit her lip. Then she slipped her hand in the breast of her coveralls, brought out her diminutive dart-gun. She brought it out very slow and holding it by the barrel because Gavin was covering her with his own automatic. "Drop it," he commanded. "Push it to me with your foot." "Now," she said, "can we talk without suspicion? I'm unarmed." "Are you?" Her black eyes widened in surprise. "Yes. Of course. I wouldn't...." "Wouldn't you?" asked Gavin stonily. She sighed faintly. "You can search me." Gavin moved around behind her. He searched her impersonally, but thoroughly. If she'd been concealing so much as a postage stamp he was convinced he would have found it. "All right," he said with a grin. "Now I trust you." She dropped to a deck chair. "I've been trying to work up enough courage," she confessed, "to—to talk to you. But you've been so grim you've frightened me off." "Why? D'you want another try at me?" "That's not fair." Her eyes sought the deck. "I'm afraid. Cabot has been ... he's ... I think he suspects me of working with X." "Are you?" "No." Her voice was shocked. "But Trev was?" She nodded. "And you were working with Trev?" "I wasn't working with him," she protested. "Only that one time. He offered me five thousand credits to copy the Saturn's loader." "How did you connect with the Nova?" "Do you mean how did I happen to get the job as third mate? But I told you. I was a cadet aboard the Saturn. I simply asked Cabot for the job." Gavin said, "That lie wouldn't fool a school kid. If you were proscribed by Tri-World you wouldn't have dared approach Cabot in the open. Someone hid you out. Someone with enough influence with Cabot got you aboard the Nova—" The general alarm cut loose with its strident clangor. Gavin sprang to his feet. "What's that for?" "The little death!" Nadia said with a shudder. As suddenly as the bell started it was stilled. A harsh voice came through the public address system, "Go to your quarters immediately! All personnel report immediately to your quarters and take to your bunks." The voice brayed forth the commands three more times at short intervals. Gavin started at a run for the interior of the ship. "Wait! Wait for me," Nadia cried. He paused. "You better run for your cabin." "I'm scared," she confessed in a trembling voice. "Let me come with you." "I'm going to the engine room." "But...." Her black eyes opened wide. Then she said defiantly, "I don't care. I—I want to come, too." The jets fell silent.