"Guilty," Jumpy said.
Asa glared at him.
"I know, I know," Jumpy said hastily. "You were framed. But what's the rap?"
"Five or one."
"Take the five," Jumpy advised. "Learn basket-weaving in a nice air-conditioned rehab clinic. A year on a changeling deal will seem a lot longer, even if you're lucky enough to live through it."
Asa took four steps to the far wall of the cell, stood there briefly with his head bent and turned to face Jumpy.
"Nope," Asa said softly. "I'm going into a conversion tank. I'm going to be a muck man, Jumpy. I'm going out to Jordan's Planet and hunt Slider eggs."
"Smuggling? It won't work."
Asa didn't answer. The Hazeltyne company had gone after him because he had been working on a method of keeping Slider eggs alive. The Hazeltyne company would be happy to see him mark time for five years of so-called social reorientation. But if he could get out to Jordan's Planet, with his physiology adapted to the environment of that wretched world, he could study the eggs under conditions no laboratory could duplicate. He might even be able to cause trouble for Hazeltyne.
His only problem would be staying alive for a year.