He glanced quickly at the showback over the screen, to assure
himself that his face was not betraying him. Beside him, Otto
Harkaman was laughing.
"Why, Captain Valkanhayn; this is an unexpected pleasure. That's
the _Space Scourge_ you're in, I take it? What are you doing here
on Tanith?"
A voice from one of the speakers shouted that a second ship had
been detected coming over the north pole. The dark-faced man in
the screen smirked quite complacently.
"That's Garvan Spasso, in the _Lamia_," he said. "And what we're
doing here, we've taken this planet over. We intend keeping it, too."
"Well! So you and Garvan have teamed up. You two were just made for
one another. And you have a little planet, all your very own. I'm so
happy for both of you. What are you getting out of it--beside poultry?"
The other's self-assurance started to slip. He slapped it back into place.
"Don't kid me; we know why you're here. Well, we got here first.
Tanith is our planet. You think you can take it away from us?"
"I know we could, and so do you," Harkaman told him. "We outgun you
and Spasso together; why, a couple of our pinnaces could knock the
_Lamia_ apart. The only question is, do we want to bother?"
By now, he had recovered from his surprise, but not from his
disappointment. If this fellow thought the _Nemesis_ was the
_Enterprise_--Before he could check himself, he had finished
the thought aloud.
"Then the _Enterprise_ didn't come here at all!"