ever heard of."

Footsteps sounded in the corridor outside.

"Better put your helmet on," Wayne advised. "Whoever's coming might not
like to see you this way."

Quickly, she slipped the helmet back on. "I don't know what's going on,"
she said. "But I intend to find out."

* * * * *

One of the medics entered the cell without knocking and came up to
Sherri. "You'll have to go now, Lieutenant," he said. "We're going to
perform some tests on the captain now."

Sherri bristled. "Tests? What kind of tests?"

"Nothing very serious," the medic said. "Just a routine checkup to
clarify some points we're interested in."

"All right," Sherri said. "You won't find anything the matter with
him." She left.

"Come with me, Captain," said the medic politely. He unlocked the cell
door and, equally politely, drew a needle-beam pistol. "Don't try
anything, please, sir. I have my orders."

Silently, Wayne followed the medic into the lab. Several other medics
were standing around watching him, with Stevelman, the head man, in the
back.

"Over this way, Captain," Stevelman called.

There was a box sitting on a table in the middle of the room. It was
full of sand.

"Give me your hand, please, Captain," the medic said tonelessly.

In a sudden flash of insight, Wayne realized what was in the box. He
thought fast but moved slowly. He held out his hand, but just as the
medic took it, he twisted suddenly away.

His hand flashed out and grasped the other's wrist in a steely grip. The
medic's fingers tightened on the needle-beam, and managed to pull the
trigger. A bright beam flared briefly against the lab's plastalloy
floor, doing nothing but scorching it slightly. Wayne's other hand
balled into a fist and came up hard against the medic's jaw.

He grabbed the needle-beam pistol from the collapsing man's limp hand
and had the other three men covered before the slugged medic had
finished sagging to the floor.

"All of you! Raise your hands!"

They paid no attention to him. Instead of standing where they were, they
began to move toward him. Wayne swore and, with a quick flip of his
thumb, turned the beam down to low power and pulled the trigger three
times in quick succession.

The three men fell as though they'd been pole-axed, knocked out by the
low-power beam.

"The whole ship's gone crazy," he murmured softly, looking at the three
men slumped together on the lab floor. "Stark, staring, ravi