plant where the yeasts could be
flavored and pressed into surrogate steaks and other items for spaceship
cuisine. There would be no other entrances, no way to leave except the
way he had come in.

And with the guards on duty, that was out of the question. He waited,
listening, as the check-down continued in nearby compartments. Then
silence fell again. The heavy yeast aroma had grown more and more
oppressive; now suddenly a fan went on with a whir, and a cool draft of
freshened reprocessed air poured down from the ventilator shaft above
his head.

Getting into the orbit-ship had been easier than he had hoped. In the
excitement as the new prisoners were brought aboard, security measures
had been lax. No one had expected a third visitor; in consequence, no
one looked for one. Huge as it was, the Jupiter Equilateral ship had
never been planned as a prison, and it had taken time to stake out the
guards in a security system that was at all effective. In addition,
every man who served as a guard had been taken from duty somewhere else
on the ship.

So there had been no guard at the airlock in the first few moments after
the prisoners were taken off the Ranger ship. Tom had waited until the
ship was moored, clinging to the fin strut. He watched Greg and Johnny
taken through the lock, and soon the last of the crew had crossed over
after securing the ship. Presently the orbit-ship airlock had gone dark,
and only then had he ventured from his place of concealment, creeping
along the dark hull of the Ranger ship and leaping across to the
airlock.

A momentary risk, then, as he opened the lock. In the control room, he
knew, a signal light would blink on a panel as the lock was opened. Tom
moved as quickly as he could, hoping that in the excitement of the new
visitors, the signal would go unnoticed ... or if spotted, that the
spotter would assume it was only a crewman making a final trip across to
the Ranger ship.

But once inside, he began to realize the magnitude of his problem. This
was not a tiny independent orbit-ship with a few corridors and
compartments. This was a huge ship, a vast complex of corridors and
compartments and holds. There was probably a crew of a thousand men on
this ship ... and there was no sign where Greg and Johnny might have
been taken.

He moved forward, trying to keep to side corridors and darkened areas.
In the airlock he had wrapped up his pressure suit and stored it on a
rack; no one would no