"But you will go there again?"
"I tell you, sir, that the crew will not do it," Gildersleeve replied, doggedly. "Even if I were anxious to go, every man aboard will mutiny if I tried it."
"Call them in right now and tell them that you have been ordered to Arisia!"
The captain did so. But he had scarcely started to talk when he was stopped in no uncertain fashion by his first officer—also, of course, a Valerian—who pulled his DeLameter and spoke savagely: "Cut it, chief! We are not going to Arisia, nor anywhere near there. I was with you before, you know. Point course within a quadrant of that accursed planet and I flash you where you sit!"
"Helmuth, speaking for Boskone!" ripped from the headquarters' speaker. "This is rankest mutiny. You know the penalty, do you not?"
"Certainly I do. What of it?" the first officer snapped back.
"Suppose that I tell you to go to Arisia?" Helmuth's voice was now soft and silky, but instinct with deadly menace.
"In that case I tell you to go to hell—or to Arisia, a million times worse!" snapped the officer.
"What? You dare speak thus to me?" demanded the archpirate, sheer amazement at the fellow's audacity blanketing his rising anger.