ar,
however, is largely a matter of saving fuel. A perfectly computed course
for landing will get down to ground with the use of the least number of
centigrams of fuel possible. But fuel-efficient maneuvers are rarely
time-efficient ones.

Hoddan hadn't the time or the data for computation. He swung the
spaceboat end for end, very judgmatically used rocket power to slow
himself to a suitable east-west velocity, and at the last and proper
instant applied full-power for deceleration and went down practically
like a stone. One cannot really learn this. It has to be absorbed
through the pores of one's skin. That was the way Hoddan had absorbed
it, on Zan.

Within minutes, then, the stronghold of Don Loris was startled by a
roaring mutter in the sky high overhead. Helmeted sentries on the
battlements stared upward. The mutter rose to a howl, and the howl to
the volume of thunder, and the thunder to a very great noise which made
loose pebbles dance and quiver.

Then there was a speck of white cloudiness in the late afternoon sky. It
grew swiftly in size, and a winking blue-white light appeared in its
center. That light grew brighter--and the noise managed somehow to
increase--and presently the ruddy sunlight was diluted by light from the
rockets with considerably more blue in it. Secondary, pallid shadows
appeared.

Then, abruptly, the rockets cut off, and something dark plunged
downward, and the rockets flamed again, and a vast mass of steam arose
from scorched ground--and the spaceboat lay in a circle of wildly
smoking, carbonized Darthian soil. The return of tranquility after so
much of tumult was startling.

* * * * *

Absolutely nothing happened. Hoddan unstrapped himself from the pilot's
seat, examined his surroundings thoughtfully, and turned off the vision
apparatus. He went back and examined the feeding arrangements of the
boat. He'd had nothing to eat since breakfast in this same time-zone.
The food in store was extremely easy to prepare and not especially
appetizing. He ate with great deliberation, continuing to make plans
which linked the necessities of the emigrants from Colin to his
relationship to the government of Walden, the brief visit he'd made to
Krim, the ship the emigrants would lend him and his unpopularity with
Don Loris on Darth. He also thought very respectfully about his
grandfather's opinions on many subjects, including space-piracy. Hoddan
found himself much