It's gettin' too close for comfort!" Badger cried as his refuge in a corner of the room was zapped with blue-white flame.

"You can say that again," Glint said. "We better get out of here!"

"I'm thinking about it," Badger said. "We might need to regroup, reorganize...."

Machine-gun bullets stitched across the ship's walls above their heads, showering them with fragments of metal. There was more noise as a concussion grenade, thrown by Hoban, landed just outside of effec-tive range.

"Okay," Badger said. "Time we got out of here."

The normal egress port was barred, but an elevator to other areas stood with its doors open. Badger and Glint and the remaining crewmen beat a hasty retreat, and managed to shut the doors and get the elevator moving.

Captain Hoban, wounded in the arm by a beam weapon, refused medical attention and led the pursuit.

Most of the crew had not joined the rebellion. Those who had been wavering now decided they'd had enough.

Only Badger and Glint and their close friends, Connie Mindanao, Andy Groggins, and Min Dwin, were irrevocably committed.

All together now, they moved down one of the corridors, maintaining a rolling fire to keep the pursuing officers at a distance.

Glint was saying, "Where we going, Red? What we going to do now?"

"Shaddap," Badger said. "I've got it all doped out." He led them through the now deserted commissary and out to the rear hold. "Where we goin'?" Glint asked.

Badger didn't answer.

"There's no place to go!" Glint said.

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing," Badger said. "We're going to get out of here."

"Out of here?" Glint looked puzzled.

"Off this ship," Badger said. "We'll take one of the escape pods and leave this death ship behind. We'll go down to AR-32."

"Yeah, okay," Glint said. Then he thought of some-thing. "But where'll we go after that, Red? There's no civilization down there!"

"Well then make contact with Lancet."

Glint turned it over in his mind. Lancet ? Dimly he remembered that that was the name of the Bio-Pharm ship that had nuked the other ship, the Valparaiso something. The one they had gotten the flight recorder from.

"Red, are you sure we want to do that? Those people are killers!"

"Of course I'm sure. We're on their side now. They'll give us good money for turning our information over to them. They're going to be very interested to hear about Captain Hoban and the doctor and what they're up to. Well be heroes." "I don't know," Glint said.

"Trust me, " Badger said. "Anynow, what else can you do ?"

"I guess you're right," Glint said. You could tell from his voice that it was a load off his mind, letting Badger make the decisions for both of them.

The others in the party weren't interested in asking questions. They wanted to be led, to be told what to do, and that was what Badger liked to do, lead people. It made him feel strong and good, until something went wrong, which, unfortunately, it did all too often But not this time. This time he knew what he was doing.

"Come on," Badger said. "We've got to get the spare lander."

Andy Groggins said, "They're apt to be waiting for us there, Red."

"If they are," Badger said, "then so much the worse for them.