Al flipped the cylinder closed and made sure the gun was ready to use. "We went to another system," he said. "A fluke, maybe. Or maybe the Old Man planned it. He believed in interstellar travel by dimensional short cuts. I was third mate, like you. I fingered the controls and he gave me the figures. Something like a double right-angle repeated twice. I was dizzy as hell when I finally put old Wagon Wheel on a straight course, but after I blinked my eyes a couple of times and looked out through a porthole, I knew that the Old Man was right. There was the cutest little green planet, and the nicest, warmest fourth-magnitude sun you ever saw." He smiled and the hard lines disappeared for a moment. "Where are we now?"
"Sixty-three, seven, ninety-one. At 1300. I can work it down to twelve decimals, sir, if you want—"
"Never mind. Just watch the instruments. The chronometer lines will tell you when."
Al stuffed the revolver under his belt in the front of his trousers. "We're going back to that planet, Oakey. A pretty little place, soft and warm as a tropical isle. And there were nice looking people there—human beings like us." Al closed his eyes. "Such women. Nice round shoulders. Soft brown eyes you could spend a lifetime looking into. There was one...."
Al paused while his fingers seemed to caress the butt of the pistol. "She called herself something like Dwea.... I taught her to speak English a little." The commander shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe you'll find a girl there, Oakey. Maybe I'll see mine again. That was ten years ago." He chuckled. "She's probably got a husband and six kids now."
Al took a step toward the doorway marked C, one of four, each leading to a quadrant of the wagon wheel.
"Please, sir," said Oakey. "Don't—"
Al pulled open the door. "Time's getting short and we can't take the Quinnies to that planet with us." A sweep of centrifugal force caught him as he opened the door. His big, hairy hand caught the rung of a ladder beside the door. "Joe went on that trip. He and I were the only ones of the crew that didn't catch the Quinnies the minute we landed back on earth. We ducked out again, shipping with a new commander with a new crew on old Wagon Wheel again. We went to Ganymede."
"Yeah," said Oakey. "I was cabin boy on that trip. My first space flight. Maybe that's how I escaped the Quinnies too." Oakey glanced at the chronometer. "We've still got fifty-five minutes. Why don't you wait twenty minutes or so?"