.
"Qoqol, what would have happened if we hadn't shifted orbit to take
aboard that G-boat?"

Qoqol calculated a moment.

"Hit our engines," he announced. "Dead center."

Jonner's blue eyes clouded ominously. "Looks like they're playing for
keeps this time, boys."

* * * * *

The brotherhood of spacemen is an exclusive club. Any captain,
astrogator or engineer is likely to be well known to his colleagues,
either personally or by reputation.

The ship's doctor-psychologist is in a different category. Most of them
sign on for a few runs for the adventure of it, as a means of getting
back and forth between planets without paying the high cost of passage
or to pick up even more money than they can get from lucrative
planetbound practice.

Jonner did not know Serj, the _Radiant Hope_'s doctor. Neither T'an nor
Qoqol ever had heard of him. But Serj appeared to know his business well
enough, and was friendly enough.

It was Serj's first trip and he was very interested in the way the ship
operated. He nosed into every corner of it and asked a hundred questions
a day.

"You're as inquisitive as a cadet spaceman, Serj," Jonner told him on
the twenty-fifth day out. Everybody knew everyone else well by then,
which meant that Jonner and Qoqol, who had served together before, had
become acquainted with T'an and Serj.

"There's a lot to see and learn about space, Captain," said Serj. He was
a young fellow, with fair hair and an easy grin. "Think I could go
outside?"

"If you keep a lifeline hooked on. The suits have magnetic shoes to hold
you to the hull of the ship, but you can lose your footing."

"Thanks," said Serj. He touched his hand to his forehead and left the
control deck.

Jonner, near the end of his eight-hour duty shift, watched the dials.

The red light showing the inner airlock door was open blinked on. It
blinked off, then the outer airlock indicator went on, and off.

A shadow fell across Jonner briefly. He glanced at the port and reached
for the microphone.

"Careful and don't step on any of the ports," he warned Serj. "The
magnetic soles won't hold on them."

"I'll be careful, sir," answered Serj.

No one but a veteran spaceman would have noticed the faint quiver that
ran through the ship, but Jonner felt it. Automatically, he swung his
control chair and his eyes swept the bank of dials.

At first he saw nothing. The outer lock light blinked on and off, then
the