e wrench.
He turned sharply, discovered first the girl standing ten feet away with
the wrench in her raised hand, next their second crew member lying on
the carpet between them, finally the long, thin knife lying near the
man's hand.

"Thanks, Miss Mines!" he said, somewhat out of breath. "I really should
have remembered Calat might be somewhere around."

Duomart Mines gestured with her head at the adjoining control cabin. "He
was in there," she said, also breathlessly. She was a long-legged blonde
with a limber way of moving, pleasing to look at in her shaped Fleet
uniform, though with somewhat aloof and calculating eyes. In the dim
light of the room she seemed to be studying Dasinger now with an
expression somewhere between wariness and surprised speculation. Then,
as he took a step forward to check on Calat's condition, she backed off
slightly, half lifting the wrench again.

Dasinger stopped and looked at her. "Well," he said, "make up your mind!
Whose side are you on here?"

Miss Mines hesitated, let the wrench down. "Yours, I guess," she
acknowledged. "I'd better be, now! They'd murder me for helping a
planeteer."

* * * * *

Dasinger went down on one knee beside Calat, rather cautiously though
the Fleetman wasn't stirring, and picked up the knife. Miss Mines turned
up the room's lights. Dasinger asked, "What was this ... a mutiny?
You're technically in charge of the ship, aren't you?"

"Technically," she agreed, added, "We were arguing about a Fleet
matter."

"I see. We'll call it mutiny." Dasinger checked to be sure Calat wasn't
faking unconsciousness. He inquired, "Do you really need these boys to
help you?"

Duomart Mines shook her blond head. "Not at all. Flying the Mooncat is a
one-man job."

"I did have a feeling," Dasinger admitted, "that Willata's Fleet was
doing a little featherbedding when they said I'd have to hire a crew of
three to go along with their speedboat."

"Uh-huh." Her tone was non-committal. "They were. What are you going to
do with them?"

"Anywhere they can be locked up safely?"

"Not safely. Their own cabin's as good as anything. They can batter
their way out of here if they try hard enough. Of course we'd hear them
doing it."

"Well, we can fix that." Dasinger stood up, fished his cabin key out of
a pocket and gave it to her. "Tan suitcase standing at the head of my
bunk," he said. "Mind bringing that and the little crane from the
stor