l service on
his blue tunic bent over him. "How do you feel?"

Rip's voice surprised him. It was as full and strong as ever. "I feel
wonderful. Can I get up?"

"When we get enough blood into you and your arm is fully restored."

Commander O'Brine appeared in the door frame. "Can he talk?"

"Yes. He's fine, sir."

O'Brine glared down at Rip. "Can you give me a good reason why I shouldn't
have you treated for space madness, then toss you in the spacepot until we
reach earth?"

"Best reason in the galaxy," Rip said cheerfully. "But before we talk
about it, I want to know how my men are. One got cut and another had his
bubble cracked. Also, one of the Connies got badly cut, another had some
broken bones, and a third one bled into high vack when Koa cracked his
bubble."

The doctor answered Rip's question. "Your men are all right. We put the
one with the cracked bubble into high compression for a while, just to
relieve his pain a little. The other one didn't bleed much. He's back in
the squadroom right now. Two of the prisoners are patched up, but the
third one is in the other operating room. I don't know whether we can save
him or not. We're trying."

O'Brine nodded. "Thanks, doctor. Now, Foster, start talking. You fired on
this ship, scored a hit, and broke the airseal. No casualties,
fortunately. But by forcing us to accelerate at optimum speed, you caused
so much breakage of ship's stores that we'll have to put into Marsport for
new stocks. And on top of all that, you insulted me within the hearing of
every man on the ship. I don't mind being insulted by Planeteers. I'm used
to it. But when it's done over the ship's communications system, it's bad
for discipline."

Rip tried to keep a straight face. He said mildly, "Sir, I'm surprised you
even give me a chance to explain."

"I wouldn't have," O'Brine said frankly. "I would have shot off a special
message to earth relieving you of command and asking for Discipline Board
action. But when I saw those Connie prisoners, I knew there was more to
this than just a young space-pup going vack-wacky."

"There was, Commander." Rip recited the events of the past few hours while
the Irishman listened with growing amazement. He finished with, "I had to
convince you in a hurry that we still held the asteroid, so I used some
insulting phrases that would let you know who was talking without any
doubt at all. And you did know, didn't you, sir?"

O'Brine flushed. For a long m