"We'd never reach Callisto. You don't realize how dense the fumes are in this cabin. We could explode just like that." I tried futilely to snap my clumsy spacesuit fingers. "Look," said Naomi irritably, "let me do the worrying. I'm the leader and I say we go directly home." "I beg your pardon," I objected, holding my temper. "I understood this was a fifty-fifty proposition." "Callisto!" she snarled. "I order you." "Shut up!" I snapped. "I'm pilot of this ship, and space law says you obey me." We'd have had our final showdown right then and there, except it's practically impossible to wrestle in spacesuits. We landed in Ganymede City and haggled over price with the same garageman who sold me my used 2064 Spacer (being equipped for battle by our ordnance crew even as we talked). He brought his bid down finally from a hundred to seventy-five solars. "Okay, have it ready in an hour," I said, walking from the shop. Naomi followed indignantly. "Vera. Just where in the hell are you going to get seventy-five solars?" I paused on the sidewalk, hands hitched to my weapons belt. "I'll dig it up if you'll agree to do some research for me." Naomi smiled craftily. "Steal it, eh? All right, I'll go along with you for the time being." I left her at the public library and headed, with serious misgivings, in the direction of my family home. Ganymede City is a drab industrial town of a million or so people, with very little excitement or glamor beneath its turquoise dome. The chamber of commerce used to give a big buildup to the view of Jupiter and the good job opportunities when they first wanted to attract workers from Earth. Those poor shnooks soon got fed up with astronomy when the boom fizzled out and the only jobs left were in the metal refineries. I hate my father who is a jerk just like the rest of them. Never quite became shop foreman. Never quite able to buy his own house. Never quite saved enough to move his family to Saturn's ring where the real boom took place. And always so damn preachy to me and the younger kids. And my mother disgusted me too for just sitting around and taking it all those years. "What are you doing here?" my father demanded. "You're supposed to be on your way to Mars." "Vera, what happened?" my mother whined. "Why aren't you on the ship?" "I need a little more money. Seventy-five solars." "What do you mean, a little more money?" said my father angrily. "What happened to the money we gave you?" "And the tickets," my mother, anxiously. "You promised me you'd go to school. What did you do with the tickets?" "Don't worry. I got a refund. It's all in a safe place." My father got menacing. "Say, just what are you up to? You haven't gone back to that gang by any chance?" "Oh God forbid!" my mother cried. "I need seventy-five solars," I repeated calmly. "Are you going to give it to me?" "Answer me!" my father roared. "Have you gone back to that gang?" "That's none of your damn business."