landly, "will be to find a
meanth of thelf-thupport until you and all other ecthra-planetarieth can
be removed from Irwadi. We owe you ecthra-planetarieth nothing. Ethpect
no charity from uth."

Ramsey shrugged. Like all extra-planetaries on a bleak, friendless world
like Irwadi, he'd regularly gambled away and drank away his monthly
paycheck in the interstellar settlement which the Irwadians had
established in the Old Quarter of Irwadi City. But last month he'd
managed to come out even at the gaming tables, so he had a few hundred
credits to his name. That would be enough, he told himself, to tide him
over until Interstellar Transfer Service came to the rescue of its
stranded pilots.

Ramsey went up the gangway and got his gear from the _Polaris_. When he
returned down the gangway, the late afternoon wind was blowing across
the spacefield tarmac, a wet, bone-chilling wind which only the
reptile-humanoid Irwadians didn't seem to mind.

Ramsey fastened the toggles of his cold-weather cape, put his head down
and hunched his shoulders, and walked into the teeth of the wind. He did
not look back at the _Polaris_, marooned indefinitely on Irwadi despite
anything the Centaurian owners or anyone else for that matter could do
about it.

* * * * *

The Irwadi Security Officer, whose name was Chind Ramar, walked up the
gangway and ordered the ship's Centaurian first officer to assemble his
crew and passengers. Chind Ramar allowed himself the rare luxury of a
fleeting smile. He could imagine this scene being duplicated on fifty
ships here on his native planet today, fifty outworld ships which had no
business at all on Irwadi. Of course, Irwadi was an important
planet-of-call in the Galactic Federation because the vital metal
titanium was found as abundantly in Irwadian soil as aluminum is found
in the soil of an Earth-style planet. Titanium, in alloy with steel and
manganese, was the only element which could withstand the tremendous
heat generated in the drive-chambers of interstellar ships during
transfer. In the future, Chind Ramar told himself with a kind of cold
pride, only Irwadian pilots, piloting Irwadian ships through
hyper-space, would bring titanium to the waiting galaxy. At Irwadi
prices.

With great relish, Chind Ramar announced the facts of planetarization
and told the Centaurians and their passengers that they would be
stranded for an indefinite period on Irwadi. Amazement, ange