nd heat beams.
They darted out like flashing swords from the rocks near the ship.

Then the whole ship and the crater wall behind it seemed to shift
sidewise as a Benson curve light spread its glow about the ship, with
a projector curve beam coming up and touching the window through which
I was peering.

"Haljan, come look at these damn girls! Commander--shall I stop them?
They'll kill themselves, or kill us--or smash something!"

We followed the man into the building's broad central corridor. Anita
and Venza were riding a midget platform! Anita, in her boyish black
garb; Venza, with a flowing white Venus-robe. They lay on the tiny six
foot long oblong of metal, one manipulating its side shields, the
other at the controls. As we arrived, the platform came sliding down
the narrow confines of the corridor, lurching, barely missing a door
projection. Up to the low vaulted ceiling, then down to the floor.

It sailed over our heads, rising over us as we ducked. Anita waved her
hand.

Grantline gasped, "By the infernal!"

I shouted, "Anita, stop!"

But they only waved at us, skimming down the length of the corridor,
seeming to avoid a smash a dozen times by the smallest margin of
chance, stopping miraculously at the further end, hanging poised in
mid-air, wheeling, coming back, undulating up and down.

Grantline clung to me. "By the gods of the airways!"

In spite of my astonished horror, I could not but share Grantline's
admiration. Three or four other men were watching. The girls were
amazingly skillful, no doubt of that. There was not a man among us who
could have handled that gravity platform indoors, not one who would
have had the brash temerity to try it.

The platform landed with the grace of a humming bird at our feet, the
girls dexterously balancing so that it came to rest swiftly, without
the least bump.

I confronted them. "Anita, what are you doing?"

She stood up, flushed and smiling. "Practicing."

"What for?"

Venza's roguish eyes twinkled at me. Her hands went to her slim hips
with a gesture of defiance.

She asked, "Are you speaking for yourself or the Commander?"

I ignored her. "What for?"

"Because we're good at it," Anita retorted. "Better than any of you
men. If you should need us, we're ready...."

"We won't!" I said shortly.

"But if you should...."

Venza put in, "If Snap and I hadn't come for you, you wouldn't be
here, Gregg Haljan. I didn't notice you were so horrified to