"Huh?" The Venusian looked startled for a second; then his
blubber-drowned little eyes became shrewd. "Oh, about Orbit Saturn, I
guess."
* * * * *
Nolan suppressed a sudden frown. He asked carefully, "Say, how do you
do it on these new-type ships anyhow? All the ones I've been on, you
had to have the panels filter-shuttered before they lifted gravs."
"Paint," the mate said curtly. "Okay, here we are."
He stood aside, pointed to a door with a glowing golden star embossed
on it. Nolan nodded and entered, but his thoughts were racing.
Paint the panels! It would take the whole crew, and they'd never get
it off. If they opaqued with paint the ship would be blind for weeks.
The filter shutters--great strips of polarized colloid--were the only
solution to the problem of keeping out the worst of the sun's dread
radiations, but admitting enough light to guide the ship. But they had
to be put on externally, before the ship took off. Mars? This ship,
ports transparent as they were, would never dare approach the sun's
blinding energies closer than Jupiter!
_No wonder they didn't want me_, Nolan thought grimly. _They're not
going within a hundred million miles of Mars!_
The thought froze in Nolan's mind as he entered the captain's cabin.
First he saw the captain, a tall, demon-black Martio-Terrestrial,
standing before his own desk. Then his eyes flicked past, toward the
florid-faced man who sat behind the desk, fumbling with a cigarette
lighter.
And then, for the first time in three years, he was face to face with
Alan Woller.
Nolan might have showed a flicker of emotion in his face. Heaven knows,
the blast of iron hatred that surged up through his body was powerful
enough. But Woller was lighting a cigarette. The second that it took
him to finish it and look up was time enough for Nolan to freeze.
"Vincennes is my name," the captain was saying. "What's yours?"
"Matthews. I'm sorry to have forced my way onto your ship, but I had to
get to Mars."
Woller looked up then, and a sudden trace of consternation flashed into
his eyes. It died away, but a doubt remained.