"No!” exclaimed Lana hotly. “No massacre! I told you my rules when you joined us, Jenk. The Companions willfully spill no blood as long as I lead them!"
"My rule has always been to leave nobody alive to testify against me in a space-court,” grumbled the fat Uranian shrilly. “This tenderheartedness—"
"It isn't just tenderheartedness; it's good strategy!” flashed Lana Cain, her blue eyes determined. “When freighter-men know they're going to be massacred if they surrender, they fight to the last man. But when they know that only their cargo will be taken, and their lives spared, they surrender a lot more quickly. Further, the hunt against us is never so bitter. It was my father's rule to take no life, and it's mine, and it's paid returns to the Companions."
"That it has!” declared Brun Abo, the Jovian, “It's saved us many a bitter fight-and possibly extermination."
The girl looked around them as he gave her orders.
"Our chief spatial navigator will check their course against Saturn's and ours. We'll blast off tomorrow dawn, with forty ships. That'll give us time enough to be waiting in the Zone, and when the Jovian freighters pass underneath, we'll swoop down on them."
"What about Gunner and Sual Av and me?” John Thorn asked her. “We have no ship, remember."
"You'll be furnished one, and a crew to go with it,” Lana answered crisply. “From what I've heard of you Planeteers, you'll be able to handle your part."
She ran her hand a little tiredly through her mop of dull-gold hair.
"That's all, men. See that your ships and men are ready to blast off at dawn. And not too much drinking tonight!"