Pulling the other to his feet, Carter drew his blaster and said, "Suppose you take me to them—right now. I want some explanation of all this. Move!"
An hour before, Carter had been in space, traveling alone from the Base Hospital on Rigel IV toward Ophiuchus VII. He expected to spend his period of convalescence there. Ophiuchus VII was a low-grav world set aside as a vacation planet for recuperating invalids.
Carter had been injured in a reactor explosion aboard the Starship Alpha Centauri, where he had been navigator. He came out of that pretty lightly—radiation burns, a fractured skull, and little other damage. Some skin grafts and a complicated titanium-plate rebuild had his body and his skull as good as new within weeks. He was on his way to Ophiuchus to rest up before returning to spaceline duty.
But his flight was interrupted when his detectors picked up an SOS as he passed the Deneb system.
"SOS! SOS! General rescue call!"
It was coming over on a wide-beam cast. Carter localized it on Deneb IV, an unexplored world, and replied, "I hear you. Who's this?"
"Survey Ship Vanguard. We're in trouble."
"How many are you?"
"Twelve, altogether. Urgent that you rescue us."