She said, "I understand. Now, you'll do some things for us. You won't ask questions because you wouldn't understand; later, you may understand without asking."
I felt like the commonest kind of crook. "So you saved my life," I said, "just so you'd have a sucker to pull some kind of a job for you. Now I suppose if I don't want to do what you say, you'll threaten to turn me over to the Solar authorities for shipment back to the Martian cops!"
She flushed a little. "Wait," she said, "until you find out the truth, then I'm sure you'll want to help us. I'm sure you want to save Earth and its billions of people from death."
I shrugged. "What'd Earth ever do for me? What's it ever done for any of the poor guys dying from cosmic-rays and getting killed because there aren't any laws out there? It takes our metal for precious atomician work, and what does it give us in return? A few lousy credits, and a sign saying 'Keep out—no admission'. The devil with Earth."
"You must help us," the man said very softly and yet very forcefully.
"You mean I've got no choice, is that it?"
The girl raised her eyebrows. "There would be no sense in your making a choice now; you can't understand, so no choice would be valid. It would be only blind emotionalism."
"I see." I was mad. I could handle this cruiser myself. I'd been kidnapped by people who considered me nothing more than a robot they were going to use. I swung my feet around, got them planted solidly down on the mesh grid flooring.
I got my hands down on either side of me so I could move fast and hard. "I see. Well, I'm not playing sucker for anybody."