"Huh! Fat chance! He's so darn busy all the time he doesn't even realize that we're probably the only kids on Mars who haven't a plane. Even Book, the poorest guy at the Institute, got a copter for his birthday last month." He frowned as he always did when talking about how unfairly he had been treated. "We'll show 'em! We'll be the envy of all Mars with this ship." His face lit up in a grin and he gloated, "Muuck thinks that new atom-powered cruiser of his is the best jalopy going, just because it can range in outer space. He's getting a temporary space-pilot's license this year and all he does is brag. Wait'll he sees this job! We'll make his cruiser look sick, Lanya!" He was apparently carried away by the vision. Lanya was none too excited about the prospect of excelling Muuck's cruiser. "But, Virgil. _You_ haven't a license. How can we make Earth if we can't even leave Mars?" Virgil scoffed, "They have to catch us first! Besides, they hardly ever stop you, unless you mess up traffic patterns." "But do you think we should go so soon, Virgil? And do we _have_ to go to Earth?" Virgil turned on his distressed sister impatiently. "Look, Lanya. We agreed to run away from home, didn't we? You haven't forgotten why?" "Because father neglects us!" Lanya piped emphatically, as though she had been practicing that statement for a long time--which she had. "Right! And we've never been to Earth, have we? Even though father promises every year to take us." "No. We haven't." Virgil's inoffensive domination of his sister was too deeply ingrained for her to shake off now. She usually enjoyed complying with his suggestions because his ideas were always much more imaginative and much more fun than her own. "All right. But I don't know ..." she sighed, trying to agree and yet not commit herself too completely. "Well, what's going on in here!" It was Jonathan Greggor, wheeling his speedy copter into the shop. "Give me a hand, will you?" Lanya rushed to help push the copter beneath the overhead crane. "Going to try out that new rotor I bought last week," her father explained. "Virgil, send the magnet down, will you, and we'll take this one off." Virgil leaped to the crane controls. The powerful electromagnet rolled along the high mono-rail and fell into position above the slack copter blades. The rotor was unlocked and the magnet lifted it lightly into the air and deposited it across the room. The magnet dropped hungrily down on the slick new blades.