ered. "Got something
to tell you."

"Talk away," he said. "Quillan's piloting, the First Lady's out cold,
and Mantelish got dive-sick and I doped him. Nobody else on board."

Trigger lay back and looked at him. "This is going to sound pretty odd!"
she warned him. Then she told him what Repulsive had done and what he
was trying to do.

The Commissioner looked badly shaken.

"You sure of that, Trigger?"

"Sure, I'm sure."

"Trying to talk to you?"

"That's it."

He blinked at her. "I looked in the bag, and the thing was gone."

"Lyad knows it was gone," Trigger said. "So in case she gets a chance to
blab to someone, we'll say you had it."

He nodded and stood up. "You stay here," he said. "Prescription for the
kind of treatment you've had is a day of bed rest."

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to go talk to that Psychology ship," he said. "And just let
'em try to stall me this time!"

He went off up the passage toward the transmitter cabinet in the forward
part of the ship. Some minutes passed. Then Trigger suddenly heard
Commissioner Tate's voice raised in great wrath. She listened. It
appeared the Psychology Service had got off on the wrong foot by
advising him once more to stay calm.

He came back presently and sat down beside the bunk, still a little red
in the face. "They're going to follow us," he said. "If they hadn't, I
would have turned back and gunned our way on board that lopsided
disgrace of theirs."

"Follow us? Where?"

He grunted. "A place called Luscious. We'll be there in under a week.
It'll take them about three. But they're starting immediately."

Trigger blinked. "Looks like the plasmoids have made it to the head of
the problem list!"

"I wouldn't be surprised," said the Commissioner. "I was put through to
that Pilch after a while. She said to remind you to listen to your
thinking whenever you can get around to it. Know what she meant?"

"I'm not sure I do," Trigger said hesitantly. "But she's mentioned it.
I'll give it a whirl. Why are we going to Luscious?"

"Selan's Fleet found plasmoids on it. It's in the Vishni area."

"What kind of plasmoids?"

He shrugged. "They don't amount to much, from what I heard. Small stuff.
But definitely plasmoid. It looks like somebody might have done some
experimenting there for a while. And not long ago."

"Did they find the big one?"

"Not yet. No trace of any people on Luscious either." He chewed his lip
thoughtfully for a moment