Page:Fantastic Volume 08 Number 01.djvu/96

 "Maybe I can't take you back to Earth personally, but I can throw you in the brig till we reach our first port and send you back to Earth. And you wouldn't be able to get out of the quarantine area as easily as you got in, I can assure you of that. You'd be stuck there for the rest of your life as a longstarman."

"Not if I stowed away on another ship," Cross said.

The captain glowered at him for a moment, then: "Why in hell didn't you apply for a berth legally?"

"I couldn't raise the bond," Cross said.

"You mean you were too impatient to go to work long enough so that you could raise it, don't you?"

"That's about the size of it I understand that ship masters have ways and means of getting around such matters."

A dark cloud settled on the captain's face and for a while it looked as though a storm were going to break. Presently, however, the sun broke through and the cloud faded away. "It so happens that I am short-handed," he said. "In the galley."

Cross brightened. "That's all right," he said. "I've got to start somewhere."

"Report to Obronski on the after deck Ever operate a refuse disposal unit?"

"No, sir."

"You'll learn"

"For God's sake," the drunken space marine said. "You act like you never saw a real he-man before. You afraid of me, or something? Come on, smile!"

Her shoulders had touched the wall of the convent's recreation room, and she knew she could delay no longer. She forced herself to relax, forced a warm smile to her lips. "No," she said softly. "I'm not afraid."

The space marine's eyes grew more glazed than ever. "Thash good," he said. "Thash what I wanted to hear." He stepped closer to her, his arms outstretched, his face grotesque with lust.

She waited till he had nearly touched her, then she moved in without warning, brought her knee up sharply and, when he doubled forward, chopped him viciously on the back of the neck with the edge of her palm. He dropped, writhing, to the floor, and she proceeded to kick him deftly with her pointed shoes. She did not stop till he lay still, till the tips of her shoes were crimson, and then she stood, sick and trem- 96