As one, they whirled around to face the other side of the room. Barling and his henchman had finally got the upper hand. Teejay lay on her side, her hands behind her back. Not unconscious, she was completely spent, and an almost equally exhausted Barling was attempting to tie her hands with the black cape. The hunter sat there, dull-eyed, watching them. It was Kevin who lifted the hunter and hurled him away, and when Steve rolled Barling over and pushed him against the wall, the man did not resist. Teejay climbed to her feet, unsteadily. "I--guess I'm growing--soft," she panted. "Maybe--I don't know--maybe training and muscle-toning from--infancy--aren't the answer. A gal just isn't cut out for rough and tumble fighting." Her hand flashed up to her forehead, the back of it resting against her brow. "Ooo, Steve, catch me--" She fainted in his arms. Somehow, they got Teejay into her vac-suit. The walls of the lounge were sound-proofed, and the struggle had attracted no one. Silently they made their way out of the lounge and through the corridors of the _Frank Buck_, heading for the airlock. Steve toted Teejay over his shoulder, and remembering Mercury, felt very good about it. He ached all over from the fight and he knew he'd need some mending. But she'd called him Steve, and that--suddenly and ridiculously--was most important. "What's going on here?" A crewman met them in the corridor and bellowed his challenge. Kevin raised the neutron gun he had taken from LeClarc. He never used it. A fraction of a second later, the _Frank Buck_ blasted off from the surface of Ganymede, and sudden acceleration threw them all to the floor. As Steve was to learn later, no hands were at the controls. No _human_ hands. * * * * * "This, roughly, is the situation," began Barling, pacing back and forth, speaking out of swollen lips and averting the right side of his face with its puffy cheek and blackened eye. "We are all in this together, and--" "You hypocrite!" cried Teejay. "Six hours ago, you wanted to kill us. Now, because something unexpected pops up, you change your mind. Temporarily, for as long as you can use us, is that it?" "No. If we can get out of this I'll forget about killing, provided you forget about kidnapping." "Well...." "You haven't any other choice, Captain Moore." "He's right," Kevin admitted. "But what's the trouble we're in, Mr. Barling?" "Six hours ago you three jumped us and almost made your escape. But the _Frank Buck_ took off; suddenly, without warning. _None of my men was at the controls._" "That doesn't make sense," Steve objected. "I didn't think so, either. I almost don't know how to explain it, what I've seen with my own eyes after my men held you in detention here in the lounge." "Why don't you begin at the beginning?" Teejay said, and yawned. "Don't be funny. Somehow, the anthrovacs escaped from their bubbles and--"