now, kid. It's a job, and it has to be done. But
nobody likes to walk into an empty planet like that knowing that eight
of the last nine guys who did didn't come back."

He put his arm around her and they entered the snack bar that way. Most
of the other crew-members were there already; Wayne sensed the
heightening tenseness on their faces.

"Two nuclear fizzes," he said to the pfc at the bar. "With all the
trimmings."

"What's the matter, Captain?" said a balding, potbellied major a few
stools down, who was nursing a beer. "How come the soft drinks tonight,
Wayne?"

Peter grinned. "I'm in training, Major Osborne. Gotta kill the evil
green horde from Rigel Seven, and I don't dare drink anything stronger
than sarsaparilla."

"How about the amazon, then?" Osborne said, gesturing at Sherri. "Her
too?"

"Me too," Sherri said.

Osborne stared at his beer. "You two must be in Scarborough's new
project, then." He squinted at Peter, who nodded almost imperceptibly.

"You'll need luck," Osborne said.

"No we won't," Wayne said. "Not luck. We'll need more than just luck to
pull us through."

The nuclear fizzes arrived. He began to sip it quietly. A few more
members of the crew entered the snack bar. Their faces were drawn
tensely.

He guzzled the drink and looked up at Sherri, who was sucking down the
last of the soda. "Let's get going, Lieutenant James. The noncoms are
coming, and we don't want them to make nasty remarks about us."

* * * * *

The _Lord Nelson_ blasted off the next evening, after a frenzied day of
hurried preparations. The crew of sixty filed solemnly aboard, Colonel
Petersen last, and the great hatch swung closed.

There was the usual routine loudspeaker-business while everyone quickly
and efficiently strapped into his acceleration cradle, and then the ship
leaped skyward. It climbed rapidly, broke free of Earth's grasp, and,
out past the moon, abruptly winked out of normal space into overdrive.
It would spend the next two weeks in hyperspace, short-cutting across
the galaxy to Fomalhaut V.

It was a busy two weeks for everyone involved. Captain Peter Wayne, as a
central part of the team, spent much of his time planning his attack.
His job would be the actual climbing of the mountain where the
double-nucleus beryllium was located. It wasn't going to be an easy job;
the terrain was rough, the wind, according to Jervis, whipped ragingly
through the hills, and th