Tee stepped out of the hangar and surveyed the twin suns. The pale
binaries sat stolidly on the horizon, forty degrees apart. Their mingled
light washed down dimly on the single continent of the planet, Aurora.
He started, as a man walked around the corner of the hangar. The man
looked at Tee searchingly for a moment, then asked, "Anything troubling
you, Tee?"
"Why ... why, no, Mr. Jenner. You just startled me, that's all."
"Well, how's everything coming?"
"Right on schedule. We'll be ready for the final test by the end of the
week."
"By the way," asked Jenner, speculatively, "how come you ordered the
ship stocked and provisioned, for the test?"
"Why ... why I think she should be tested under exactly the same
conditions as she'll encounter in actual use."
"We could have done it a lot cheaper by just using ballast," said
Jenner. "After this, I want to personally see any voucher for over a
hundred credits before it's cleared."
"Yes, sir, but I just didn't want to bother you with details."
"An expenditure of over two thousand credits isn't just detail; but let
it pass. It's already done. Anyway, on the drawing board she's the
fastest thing in the galaxy." He smiled. "If she lives up to
expectations, she'll make your ship look like an old freighter. We've
got four million sunk in her so far, so she'd better check out roj."
He put his hand on Tee's shoulder. "You're not worried about testing
her, are you? You've been jumpy lately."
"Oh, no, nothing like that, Mr. Jenner. I'm just ... well, I've been up
all night watching them install the gyroscopes. Think I'll get some
sleep." He yawned.
Jenner cupped his chin in his palm and stood staring after the
retreating figure. As Tee turned and looked back nervously, Jenner
entered the hangar office. He spoke softly into the visiphone and in a
moment the screen lit up.
"Is this the prison administrator?" asked Jenner.
"What can I do for you?"
"My name is Jenner; Consolidated Spacecraft."
"Yes?"
"Suppose an escaped prisoner from Hades landed on Aurora?"
"_No one_ escapes from Hades Prison."
"Well, just suppose one did?"
"I never receive information about escapees."
"But you're the administrator here."
"My job, as the title implies, is purely administrative. I merely
arrange transportation for our annual shipment of prisoners to Hades,
and see that the records are kept straight."
"But whom _would_ they contact in the event of an escape?"
The administrator pursed his lips in impatience. "Hades has six billion
prisoners at any given time. If one did manage to escape, they couldn't
very well alert a million planets."
"You mean you wouldn't do anything?"
"As I said before, my job is purely administrative. Out of my
jurisdiction entirely. Each planet has its own police force and handles
its internal crime in its own way. What's legal on Aurora might very
well be illegal on ten thousand other planets, and vice versa."
"I see. Thank you." Jenner cut the connection slowly. He flicked the
switch open again, hesitated, and then closed it.
* * * * *
He walked out to where his gyrocar was parked, and in a few minutes set
it down on the roof of Tee's hotel. Tee was just entering the lobby as
Jenner came in and they went up to his room together.
"I'll come right to the point, Tee," he said, as soon as the door had
closed. "I just talked to the local prison administrator for Hades." He
looked closely at Tee.
"What's that got to do with me?" asked Tee, belligerently.
"Wait until I finish," said Jenner, curtly. "I hired you to test-hop our
new ship because you were the best pilot available. I'm not interested
in your past, but most of the company's resources are sunk in that
ship. If something goes wrong because the test pilot is disturbed or
nervous, the company will be bankrupt. I'm not saying you're an escaped
prisoner, but if you were, you'd have nothing to worry about."
"What do you mean?"
"The administrator told me he has no jurisdiction over escaped
prisoners, so you see, if you had escaped, you'd have nothing to fear
here. You're out of their jurisdiction."
Tee began to laugh wildly. "_Out of their jurisdiction! Out of their
jurisdiction!_ So that's the way they put it. _Out of their
jurisdiction!_"
"Stop it!" said Jenner, sharply. "Do you want to tell me now?"
Tee drew in a gasping breath and sobered. "What would I have to tell
you? So I'm the nervous type. So you hired me to test-hop your new ship.
So I'll test-hop it. That's all we agreed on. What more do you want?"