Chapter II

Two people entered, but they were not Vicenzo and Aziz. The first was a small, thin man with a long, sad face. He wore a somber black oversuit. The second was a girl no older than Henry.

"Please, Joachim," the girl whispered, "don't antagonize them. Ask about the fuel first."

Henry gaped at the girl, and his face grew hot. Since he had spent his young life among the Moons and Asteroids, never going farther sunward than Pallas, he had seen few girls his own age and none as beautiful as this one. Her hair, dyed in tiger stripes of black and yellow, was parted in the middle and, held by silver wires, extended from the sides of her head like wings. She wore blue hose, silver fur shorts, and a golden sweater sparkling with designs in mirror thread. Metal-soled shoes too large for her feet slightly marred the total effect.

"High," said the man with the sad face. "I am Joachim, Second Vice-President of the SPRS. This is our Corresponding Secretary, Morna." His deep voice rolled around the compartment as if the lower keys of an orchestrana had been struck.

"Low," Ranjit responded. "I'm Ranjit, and this is Henry. Why didn't you make an appointment? The tanks are about empty, and you may have to wait several hours. What do you feed your atomics, water or hydrogen? It'll be even longer if you need hydrogen. I haven't done any electrolysis today. I wasn't expecting--Look at that girl, Henry! I'm 107 years old, but I can still appreciate a sight like that! I don't see how a homely fellow like you, Joachim, ever got such a luscious girl."

"Ours is strictly a business relationship," said Morna with indignant formality. "We do need fuel, Ranjit. We planned to refuel on Dione, but the moon was not where Joachim thought it should be. If--"

"Later, Morna," Joachim interrupted in a hollow voice. "I have come thirteen hundred million kilometers on a mission, and I intend to fulfill it! I represent the SPRS. We have written to you, Ranjit, but you have never answered."

Ranjit said, "The SPRS? Oh, yeah, you're the ones are always sending me spacemail. It's about all I ever get, and I appreciate it. I don't get much mail, out here, and I don't see many people. This fellow here, Henry, was the first I'd seen in days. I saved Henry's life, or did he tell you?"

"How wonderful!" Morna exclaimed in awe. "I've never spoken to a Saver before! Think of it, Joachim! Ranjit saved Henry!"

"That is very nice," Joachim admitted, "but--"

"You're a hero!" Morna cried, seizing Ranjit's hands. "How does it feel to be a Saver? It must be sublime!" She turned to Henry and grasped his arms. "How do you feel, Henry? You must almost worship Ranjit! Such a noble man!"

Ranjit cackled. "Look at him blush! I don't believe he's been around girls much. Since Joachim don't have no claim on her, Henry, I'd do some sweet talking if I was your age. I pulled Henry in on a lifeline, or he'd be falling into the methane by now."

"Isn't that wonderful?" Morna marveled, smiling glamorously.

Joachim said, "Everyone be quiet and allow me to finish! I have come thirteen hundred million kilometers on a mission, and I intend to fulfill it! I am Second Vice-President of the Society for the Preservation of the Rings of Saturn. You, Ranjit, and the people on the other three stations in the Rings are destroying the most glorious and inspiring feature of the Solar System! The divine pinnacle of Creation! A miracle that may be unique in the Universe! You are destroying the Rings of Saturn for the greedy, selfish purpose of selling fuel to spaceships!"

"Spaceships got to have fuel," Ranjit said, "and don't talk so loud. Ice is scarce, you know, unless you want to chase comets. One side of Iapetus has a sheet, and Titan has some. If you go on in, you'll find a little on some of the Moons of Jupiter, and a few of the Asteroids are--"

Joachim said, "You are destroying the Rings of Saturn! This is the most despicable crime in a long history of the devastation of nature by greedy men! When you have eventually melted the last crystal of ice and departed with your hoard, Saturn will spin desolately alone through the night, shorn of his glorious halo that has been the solace and inspiration of man since prehistoric times!"

"Not when they never had telescopes, it wasn't very inspiring," Ranjit said. "I don't see why you're jumping on me, Joachim. I never answered your letters because there wasn't nothing to say. I just work here. You'll have to talk to the company to--"

"The Saturnine Fuel and Oxygen Company is headed by stubborn men!" Joachim said. "They refuse to consider or answer our demands! That is why I have come to appeal directly to the operators of these ice-sweepers! You must immediately stop sweeping the Rings into your tanks! You must tell your superiors that you refuse to destroy the crowning glory of the Solar System!"

Ranjit said, "They'd just hire somebody else. I don't know as we are destroying the Rings very fast. This was the first sweeper put in orbit nine years ago, and I can't tell no difference in Ring B. There's an awful lot of stuff in the Rings. Some of the balls are solid ice, but some are just ice coated, so we melt it off and throw out the core. Some don't have ice on it, so we throw it back. We don't use hydroponics on the sweepers. We get plenty of oxygen when we take off hydrogen, so we toss a lot of solid CO_{2} overboard, too. No, we ain't taking as much from the Rings as you think. They'll get ionic motors to working, one of these days, and it won't take hardly no fuel at all."

"Nevertheless, I believe--" Joachim tried to say.

"You've got a hard hull, anyhow," Ranjit said, "coming out here telling me to stop when you need fuel yourself. Supposing I stopped right now. How would you get away? And what would I do? I got a bad heart. About half of it's artificial. That's why I've been living under zero G for fifteen years. I can't go back to Earth. The docs say more than four-tenths G would do for me. Before I got this job, I was living in a hulk orbiting around Titan, just waiting to pass beyond. Now I got something useful to do and something to live for. I may last till I'm 120."

Henry, who had been stupidly smiling at Morna with too much intensity to follow the discussion, jerked his head around and gasped, "You, you can't stand acceleration?"

Ranjit said, "Not enough to go anywhere. I got a bad heart, a very bad heart. About half of it's--"

Vicenzo and Aziz, spacesuited, crowded into the compartment through the doorway in the netting. "Dis is a stickup!" Aziz announced over a loudspeaker on the chest of his suit.

"Don't move," Vicenzo growled, scowling beneath his black bangs.

* * * * *

Since deadly weapons were extremely rare and difficult to obtain, the pair had armed themselves with long, hand-made knives. Vicenzo also carried a cumbersome rocket launcher, a remodeled lifeline tube.

"Gangsters!" Ranjit wheezed. "I ain't seen a gangster in twenty years! I fought them in the Crime War! I--"

"Shut up, old man," Vicenzo ordered. His sideburns twitched around his cruel mouth. "Everything fixed here, Henry?"

"Are you into this, Henry?" Ranjit said.

Vicenzo snarled, "I told you to shut up!"

"Let me talk to you alone, Vicenzo," Henry said.

"Spill it now. Is this all the crew? Did you smash communications?"

"Yes," Henry admitted. "The old man is the crew. The others just came aboard."

"Why didn't you fix the other ship?" Vicenzo said. "We had to clamp on, because it was blocking the valve. We came through it, and you hadn't even smashed the radio. There might've been a crew aboard, for all you knew."

"Vicenzo's a streak, kid," Aziz said. The short, wide man's sallow face looked horrible behind the faceplate. "You oughta done like Vicenzo said," he advised. "You won't get nowhere goofin' like dat or--Hey, take a check on the doll! I never thought to see nothin' like dat on a sweeper! Lucky me!"

"She's not in this," Henry said. "She's from the other ship. Leave her alone, Aziz."

"Don't yap at me like dat, kid," Aziz warned.

Morna, who had stood as if frozen, turned to Henry and squealed, "You're a gangster? How awful, after I thought you were nice, letting Ranjit save your life!"

"Shut up, girl," Vicenzo said.

"A gangster!" Morna shrieked. She slapped Henry twice across the face, knocking his shoes loose from the magnetic deck. He flipped and fell against the net with his feet touching the ceiling.

In the confusion, Joachim broke from his terrified trance and dived through the door. "I'll get 'im!" Aziz roared and, waving his knife, followed the fleeing Second Vice-President.

As Henry struggled to regain an erect position, Morna wailed in his ear, "I thought you were good and handsome, but you're a gangster! You didn't deserve to be saved!" She slapped him again, knocking him to the deck, and began to weep wildly. Under no gravity, the tears spread in a film across her face. Surprised, she stopped crying and wiped her cheeks with her hands. A few tears flew into the air as shimmering globes.

Joachim floated into the compartment. His long chin was bruised, and he muttered, "Save the Rings!" Aziz, grinning, followed and stood on guard before the door. Morna gasped, darted to her employer, and made helpless gestures.

"All right, now," Vicenzo said. "Let's get this jaunt moving. Henry, tie these cubes up and--"

"We can't do it, Vicenzo," Henry said, staring in horror at Joachim's half-conscious body.

"What?"

Henry said, "It's the old man. His heart's bad. The acceleration would k-kill him!"

"Dat's the chance he's gotta take," Aziz sneered.

"You mean you don't care if you m-murder someone?"

"It's all in the orbit," Vicenzo said. "I told you that when you clinched with us."

"I didn't believe you," Henry said. "You can't hurt Ranjit! He saved my life!"

"Dat's what he was supposed to do, so's ya could get aboard," Aziz said.

"But he really did save me! He pulled me in on a lifeline. I would've missed the station. I wouldn't be surprised if you two tried to m-murder me! I'm checking out. The whole deal's off. Both of you get back in the ship and go! I'll give you that much of a chance. I'll stay here and take Revision, or whatever's coming to me."

"The kid's stripped his cogs," Aziz laughed through his loudspeaker.

Vicenzo aimed his rocket launcher at Henry's midriff. He growled, "Too bad you turned cube, Henry."

"Don't fire that thing in here!" Ranjit yelled. "You'll blow a hole through the hull! What are you fellows up to? I never saw such mixed-up goings on."

* * * * *

Henry said, "They're going to steal the ice-sweeper. That's why I had to be taken aboard, so I could wreck your equipment and keep you from reporting us or calling the other stations. The sweeper is supposed to vanish without a trace. I'm sorry I ruined your radio, Ranjit. I was supposed to try to keep the crew from becoming suspicious while Vicenzo and Aziz were clinching. They're going to move the sweeper into a Sun orbit, somewhere, and use it for a base. They're going to hijack spaceships."

"Of all the crazy schemes!" Ranjit snorted. "You gangsters are space happy! You're ready for the psychodocs! You can't get away with gangstering these days! I fought your grandfathers in the Crime War. I was in the Battle of Jupiter Orbit. We whipped you good, and nearly wiped you out, but, ever so often, a few of you still turn up and try silly stuff like this. Solar Government will get you!"

Vicenzo said, "Shut up, old man! Aziz, hold the girl. If the rest of you don't behave while I'm tying you, Aziz will stab her."

"Dat'd be a awful waste," Aziz said, twisting Morna's arms behind her back. Morna began to cry again. Teardrops floated like tiny planets.

Vicenzo pulled a long cord from his pack and lifted Joachim with one hand. "Save the Rings," Joachim mumbled. "You are desecrating the glory of the Solar System." Vicenzo lashed Joachim's wrists to an overhead pipe.

Vicenzo said, "All right, Henry, you and the old man put your hands against that pipe."

Ranjit said, "I'm 107 years old, but never in my life--"

"I'm going to shut you up, if you don't do it yourself," Vicenzo promised. He secured Ranjit beside Joachim and then started tying Henry's wrists to the pipe.

"Be careful what you do to the sweeper, Vicenzo," Henry begged. "Ranjit was telling me how dangerous it is. If anything causes the velocity to drop, we'll fall on Saturn."

"You think I'm stupid? That's the way with anything in an orbit. The closer to a planet, the faster you've got to go. Bring the girl, Aziz."