ipment pack, pushing
the punctured balloon free and sealing the lock. When pressure was
pumped back to ship-normal, he cracked his helmet and motioned the
other to do the same.

"You're a pack of dirty lying dogs!" Dr. Morees said when the helmet
came off. Brion was completely baffled. Dr. Lea Morees had long dark
hair, large eyes, and a delicately shaped mouth now taut with anger.
Dr. Morees was a woman.

"Are you the filthy swine responsible for this atrocity?" Dr. Morees
asked menacingly.

"In the control room," Brion said quickly, knowing when cowardice
was preferable to valor. "A man named Ihjel. There's a lot of him
to hate, you can have a good time doing it. I just joined up
myself...." He was talking to her back as she stormed from the room.
Brion hurried after her, not wanting to miss the first human spark
of interest in the trip to date.

"Kidnapped! Lied to, and forced against my will! There is no court
in the galaxy that won't give you the maximum sentence, and I'll
scream with pleasure as they roll your fat body into solitary--"

"They shouldn't have sent a woman," Ihjel said, completely ignoring
her words. "I asked for a highly qualified exobiologist for a
difficult assignment. Someone young and tough enough to do field
work under severe conditions. So the recruiting office sends me the
smallest female they can find, one who'll melt in the first rain."

"I will not!" Lea shouted. "Female resiliency is a well-known fact,
and I'm in far better condition than the average woman. Which has
nothing to do with what I'm telling you. I was hired for a job in
the university on Moller's World and signed a contract to that
effect. Then this bully of an agent tells me the contract has been
changed--read subparagraph 189-C or some such nonsense--and I'll be
transhipping. He stuffed me into that suffocating basketball without
a by-your-leave and they threw me overboard. If that is not a
violation of personal privacy--"

"Cut a new course, Brion," Ihjel broke in. "Find the nearest settled
planet and head us there. We have to drop this woman and find a man
for this job. We are going to what is undoubtedly the most
interesting planet an exobiologist ever conceived of, but we need
a man who can take orders and not faint when it gets too hot."

Brion was lost. Ihjel had done all the navigating and Brion had no
idea how to begin a search like this.

"Oh, no you don't," Lea said. "You don't get rid of me that easily