"Now, here we are and can we be safe here?"
"I think--" He held up a hand abruptly. His ears, attuned to life
aboard a spacer, had caught the sound of someone coming up the landing
ramp and into the salon a few decks above. Then faint as if it were a
hundred yards away but audible in the silence of the ship, they could
hear the triple-tongued piping of a man.