But before he could so much as complete the circuit, the proximity magnetron's gong tolled brassily. Whipping round the viewer's field in the indicated direction, Dane discovered the cylindrical bulk of a cargo ship wheeling towards the carrier. While he watched, the pickup bay's gate slid back. Receiver racks swung out and clamped onto the smaller craft, then retracted once more, lifting the carrier into the yawning bay as the gate slid closed. Dane ran his tongue along lips gone suddenly dry. But now it was too late to turn back. Pushing up from his seat, he stepped quickly across to Nelva. Something in his gaze must have warned her. Eyes wide with panic, she tried to jump up and scramble clear. Timing his blow with cool deliberation, Dane drove a hard right to the point of her jaw. The girl's head snapped back. She crumpled with an unhinged limpness that almost made Dane ill. But com-box blared in the same instant: "Carrier! What's your trouble? Can you open your hatches or shall we cut our way in?" It broke Dane's spell. Snapping on the carrier's box, he bent close: "I've got a girl aboard here. She's hurt pretty bad. You'd better come prepared to take her off. As to the how and why of it all--well, probably the best thing would be to have your captain come in first and look it over." "The captain--!" The spaceship's amplifier squawked protestingly. "Listen, mister--" "To hell with that! You listen!" Dane tried to match the harsh belligerence of the performance Pfaff, the Security rep, had given aboard the survey ship. "I've got the kind of trouble here it's going to take top rank to handle, and I'm not going to waste time talking about it, either. Just see that your captain's the first man to come aboard this carrier. If he's not, I won't take responsibility for anything that happens--and plenty will, believe me!" * * * * * Dane snapped off the carrier's com-box as he finished. Wryly, he wondered what the spaceship's officers would conjure up as being the situation aboard the carrier. Certainly he'd given them no grounds for peace of mind! But now it was time for him to prepare to receive the captain. Taking the yat-stick from beneath his tunic, he wrapped it hastily in loose plastic strips torn from the carrier's sleeper sheaths till it made a bundle about the same size and shape as his own head. Then a knocking at the hatch told him his visitor had arrived. Gripping the bundle containing the yat-stick firmly beneath his arm, Dane levered open the hatch-cover and looked out gravely at the little knot of men who stood waiting on the spaceship's transfer platform. "Which one of you's the captain?" A tall, thin, horse-faced officer with coarse grey hair, protruding eyes and an uncertain manner gestured diffidently. "Well, I am. Einar Helstrom. Captain Helstrom, that is...."