"Hey, I meant flat chess, not three-D," Croker objected.
"That thin old game? Why, I no sooner start to get the position really visualized in my head than the game's over."
"I don't want to start a game of three-D with Uranus only 18 hours away."
Jackson stirred in his hammock. His lips worked. "They...." he breathed. Croker and Ness instantly watched him. "They...."
"I wonder if he is really inside the Enemy's mind?" Ness said.
"He thinks he speaks for them," Croker replied and the next instant felt a warning touch on his arm and looked sideways and saw dark-circled eyes in a skull-angular face under a battered cap with a tarnished sunburst. Damn, thought Croker, how does the captain always know when Jackson's going to talk?
"They are waiting for us on the other side of Uranus," Jackson breathed. His lips trembled into a smile and his voice grew a little louder, though his eyes stayed shut. "They're welcoming us, they're our brothers." The smile died. "But they know they got to kill us, they know we got to die."
The hammock with its tight-swathed form began to move past Croker and he snatched at it. The captain had pushed off from him for the hatch leading forward.
Grunfeld was losing the new star at 2200 miles into Uranus when he saw the two viridian flares flashing between it and the rim. Each flash was circled by a fleeting bright green ring, like a mist halo. He thought he'd be afraid when he saw that green again, but what he felt was a jolt of excitement that made him grin. With it came a touch on his shoulder. He thought, the captain always knows.