"You'll be one if you don't cut your jets. What was their reply?"
"Xenthl will give us an audience upon our landing, but we have been emphatically warned that the slightest move we make which may be interpreted as a breach of truce will be our last. And they added that any move made by anybody else in the neighborhood which may be so interpreted will be their last, too...."
"Told you things would work out."
"Work out? We're only flying a white flag with no authorization from anybody. We've only gone AWOL. And Hoskins is gunning right behind. We often leave without saying good-bye—"
"Parts of that statement are inaccurate. Hoskins is waiting at the boundary, not daring to fire into the Sirian zone—not gunning right behind. And he knows that one ship-length of an armed cruiser over the boundary will mean the G-ray for the whole shooting-match. He also knows we'll come back, so is just standing by until we do. However, to something of far more importance. Did you bring the blast-rifle?"
"I did. I assume it is like the pistol, only more so."
"It certainly is supposed to be."
"Your answer is only more or less perfect. I say again, is the rifle like a super G-ray?"
"No."
"Like a super atomic cannon, then."