lift with an officer who dogged
the doors and flashed the ready signal.

"Up, easy," the ship's captain ordered.

The lift rose slowly until it reached the Revenge's
portal. An articulated crane grasped the cabin
gently, drew it inboard along slackened cables and
lowered it to a mobile platform. Suited technicians
dashed forward to disengage the cables, and the
capsule was pushed inside.

Narval safely aboard, space tugs encircled
the Revenge and took positions along its hull.
Mag-beams flashed across. The Revenge disengaged
from the mooring tower and drifted off. The tugs
nudged it along to a hundred kay above the dome,
cut their mass-attractors and the ship disappeared
into the node of the Planet Pluto Spunnel.

Narval was off to his destiny.

##

Zolan stood among a throng of space-suited citizens
below the Revenge, from where he watched it
ascend and move off. Minutes later, none but Zolan
remained.

Aware of his awesome responsibility, a sense of
serenity in the power of his will suffused Zolan's
being. He had been faithful to the science and art
of his chosen profession, and his devotion to the
Sentinels' mission had enriched his harmony with
all about him. It had come to this.

Tilting his head back in the clear plastic helmet
of his suit, Zolan watched the Revenge enter the
spunnel node. He lost interest and headed for a
space taxi.

Climbing aboard, he punched in his identifier code
and the coordinates for a tunnel warehouse fifty
kay distant where he had a clearance on file. The
taxi digested the data, reported to its master
control inside Coldfield, and received the required
permission. The taxi rose briskly in a tight turn
and accelerated toward a range of low hills.

Out of sight beyond a hillock, Zolan reached
into the circuitry behind the instrument panel,
manipulated connections, and punched in new
coordinates. The taxi paused and aligned to the
new course, Zolan's hands on its manual controls.
The advance notification to control center was
inoperative.

Charon grew in size up ahead as the taxi
approached. Zolan stabilized the flitter to hover
stationary barely a meter above the frozen methane.
As he disembarked, Zolan reached behind the
instrument panel and readjusting the circuits.
Transmissions from the taxi's computer would
soon resume and indicate a routine return from the
previously entered destination. Zolan watched the
taxi out of sight.

The distant tiny sphere th