ou. We've got--so little time."

"I'll ask the skipper as soon as the Plumie ship's free."

"Y-yes," said Diane. And she pressed her face against his shoulder, and
wept.

This was at 01 hours, 20 minutes ship time. At 03 hours even, there was
peculiar activity in the valley between the welded ships. There were men
in space armor working cutting-torches where for twenty feet the two
ships were solidly attached. Blue-white flames bored savagely into solid
metal, and melted copper gave off strangely colored clouds of
vapor--which emptiness whisked away to nothing--and molten iron and
cobalt made equally lurid clouds of other colors.

There were Plumies in the air lock, watching.

At 03 hours 40 minutes ship time, all the men but one drew back. They
went inside the _Niccola_. Only one man remained, cutting at the last
sliver of metal that held the two ships together.

It parted. The Plumie ship swept swiftly away, moved by the centrifugal
force of the rotary motion the joined vessels had possessed. It dwindled
and dwindled. It was a half mile away. A mile. The last man on the
outside of the _Niccola's_ hull thriftily brought his torch to the air
lock and came in.

Suddenly, the distant golden hull came to life. It steadied. It ceased to
spin, however slowly. It darted ahead. It checked. It swung to the right
and left and up and down. It was alive again.

* * * * *

In the radar room, Diane walked into Baird's arms and said shakily:

"Now we ... we have almost fourteen days."

"Wait," he commanded. "When the Plumies understood what we were doing,
and why, they drew diagrams. They hadn't thought of cutting free, out in
space, without the spinning saws they use to cut bronze with. But they
asked for a scanner and a screen. They checked on its use. I want to
see--"

He flipped on the screen. And there was instantly a Plumie looking
eagerly out of it, for some sign of communication established. There were
soprano sounds, and he waved a hand for attention. Then he zestfully held
up one diagram after another.

Baird drew a deep breath. A very deep breath. He pressed the
navigation-room call. The skipper looked dourly at him.

"_Well?_" said the skipper forbiddingly.

"Sir," said Baird, very quietly indeed, "the Plumies are talking by
diagram over the communicator set we gave them. Their drive works.
They're as well off as they ever were. And they've been modifying their
tractor bea