f his radish, Hellman stifled a sigh. Their
last meal had been three days ago ... if two biscuits and a cup of
water could be called a meal. This radish, now resting in the vast
emptiness of their stomachs, was the last gram of food on board ship.

"Two planets," Casker said. "One's burned to a crisp."

"Then we'll land on the other."

Casker nodded and punched a deceleration spiral into the ship's tape.

Hellman found himself wondering for the hundredth time where the fault
had been. Could he have made out the food requisitions wrong, when
they took on supplies at Calao station? After all, he had been
devoting most of his attention to the mining equipment. Or had the
ground crew just forgotten to load those last precious cases?

He drew his belt in to the fourth new notch he had punched.

Speculation was useless. Whatever the reason, they were in a jam.
Ironically enough, they had more than enough fuel to take them back to
Calao. But they would be a pair of singularly emaciated corpses by the
time the ship reached there.

"We're coming in now," Casker said.

And to make matters worse, this unexplored region of space had few
suns and fewer planets. Perhaps there was a slight possibility of
replenishing their water supply, but the odds were enormous against
finding anything they could eat.

"Look at that place," Casker growled.

Hellman shook himself out of his reverie.

The planet was like a round gray-brown porcupine. The spines of a
million needle-sharp mountains glittered in the red dwarf's feeble
light. And as they spiraled lower, circling the planet, the pointed
mountains seemed to stretch out to meet them.

"It can't be _all_ mountains," Hellman said.

"It's not."

Sure enough, there were oceans and lakes, out of which thrust jagged
island-mountains. But no sign of level land, no hint of civilization,
or even animal life.

"At least it's got an oxygen atmosphere," Casker said.

Their deceleration spiral swept them around the planet, cutting lower
into the atmosphere, braking against it. And still there was nothing
but mountains and lakes and oceans and more mountains.

On the eighth run, Hellman caught sight of a solitary building on a
mountain top. Casker braked recklessly, and the hull glowed red hot.
On the eleventh run, they made a landing approach.

"Stupid place to build," Casker muttered.

The building was doughnut-shaped, and fitted nicely over the top of
the mountain. There was a w