The girl unbuckled her ackseat straps and sat up straight. "You mean they had to call?"
"What do you expect, that we keep a constant watch on all these backwater planets—"
"According to Regulations—"
"A lot you know of Regulations, young woman! Do you realize what the charge against you is? And that the lives of two men were risked to bring you back in one piece?"
"All I know is that this system's Geejay was serviced only eleven Periods ago, and was supposed to be good for at least—"
"That will be enough of that, or you'll find yourself facing more than just loss of rank!"
She reddened. "What of the man Kane?" she asked.
"He's lucky," B-Haaq answered, grinning slowly. "He'll be killed down there before they finish the double-A job."
An alarm clanged in the ship, and it veered sharply on its automatics, dodging the hurtling masses of debris that were still being flung into Space from the Outer Ring of Saturn. Minutes passed before the labortech at the controls, face drained of color with the tension of watching for the first sign of failure of the automatics, was able to relax and set course outward toward the looming hulk that was Director Gentech Starn's Flagship, drifting slowly at the system's rim.