Martin frowned, then shrugged. "Well, all right. You understand that the crew will be busy with their duties?"
"Of course, Captain. I won't be in the way at all. You go on and take care of your duties. Have you got clearance papers from the general yet? Then you had better get them. Craig, you and Mary keep on lugging freight."
"Clearance papers?" Martin said, exasperation in his voice. "It's been so long since I've taken off from a Solar System port that—"
"The captain of the clearing ship has to apply in person for clearance papers," Adam said. "I mention it, because you might have forgot. That's the regulation."
"Damn!" Captain Martin said. "Well, if I must, I must."
Mary Kirkham and Craig Randall, the latter tremendously puzzled, were already leaving the control room. "I don't understand it," Craig was thinking, over and over again. "He knows too much—and seems to know too little—there's a play going on here that is over my head—" He shook his head, but he kept his thoughts to himself.
"What are we supposed to do, just go get more boxes?" Mary questioned.
"I don't know. Play along and wait for your cue. Something is going to happen."
"But I don't want to make the big hop. I don't want to go—" Her voice went into silence as Captain Martin fell into step beside them. The Captain's face was utterly blank. He walked like a man in a deep daze, like a zombie, like a man in a trance. Once his eyes flicked toward the wall. Following the direction in which the captain had glanced, Craig caught the vague outline of a door covering an alcove. Craig shuddered. Now he understood one reason why Captain Martin might be walking like a man in a trance. But were there other reasons?