"Who said anything about not getting excited?" Oscar answered. "I'm so excited I can hardly talk. But don't think of the Astarte as a possible way to get back; think of her historically."
"Yow think of it that way," said Tex. "I'm a believer and a hoper. I want to get out of this dump."
"Oh, you'll get out! They'll come find us some day-and then they'll finish the mission we flubbed."
"Look," answered Tex, "couldn't we go off duty and not think about the mission just for the next quarter of a mile? These insects are something fierce-you think about Oscar and I'll think about Mother Jarman's favorite son. I wish I was back in the good old Triplex."
"You were the guy that was always beefing that the Triplex was a madhouse."
"So I was wrong. I can be big about it."
They came to one of the rare rises in the level of the ground, all of ten feet above water level. The natives started to whisper and lisp excitedly among themselves. Matt caught the Venerian word for "tabu." "Did you get that, Oz?" he said in Basic. "Tabu."
"Yes. I don't think she told them where she was taking, them."
The column stopped and spread out; the three cadets moved forward, pushing rank growth aside and stepped in a clearing.
In front of them, her rakish wings festooned in vines and her entire hull sheathed in some translucent substance, was the Patrol Rocket Ship Astarte.