Later that day, but still two hours before nightfall, Ramar Chind arrived with a small crew of three Security Police. He had selected his men carefully: they knew how to handle a spaceship, they knew how to fight, they were quite ruthless. He thought Garr Symm would be pleased.
Symm did not arrive until just before nightfall. He was very agitated when he came. Ramar Chind, too, was eager. What would happen within the next several hours, he realized, might be beyond his ken, but he still recognized its importance. And, being an opportunist, he would pounce on whatever he found of value to himself….
Several hours after the setting of the Irwadi primary had ushered in the cold night, Margot Dennison, Ramsey and Vardin arrived at the Graveyard and made their way at once to the Enterprise. They went inside swiftly and in a very few minutes prepared the thousand-tonner for blastoff. Ramsey’s mouth was dry. He could barely keep the thoughts of proto-man from his mind. If Margot read them….
“Centauri here we come,” he said, just to talk.
“Centauri,” said Margot.
But of course, she had another destination in mind.
Several hundred yards [p 112] across the Graveyard, watching, waiting, the occupants of Dog Star were armed to the teeth.
Ramsey sat at the controls. Vardin stood behind him nervously. The space trip from Vega to Irwadi was probably the only one she had ever taken. Margot sat, quite relaxed, in the co-pilot’s chair.
“I still can’t believe we’re not going to feel anything,” Vardin said in her soft, shy voice.
“Haven’t you ever been through hyper-space before?” Margot asked the Vegan girl.