He brought it back to Geddes and Hovic, and the three of them stood with their prizes in their hands and looked at each other dumbly.
"Why do we have to go on with this?" Lowe asked. "Why don't we just go into the ship and push the pile up to critical mass and go up with it? What's the use?"
They were trying to think of an answer when they saw the boat coming across the river—a clumsy thing jerry-rigged from salvaged sheets of alloy, rowed by two women who were unmistakably human. Both women were dressed in brief utilitarian garments fashioned from pale green parachute silk. Their bare arms flashed white in the silver sunlight. Their red hair blew long and free in the wind.
Hovic found his tongue first. "Hanlon was right again. The Connors brought the Terra II down safely after all!"
The makeshift boat touched shore. The girl at the bow stood up, cradling an out-moded blast rifle in her arms.
"Throw away your weapons," she called peremptorily. "And take off those stupid airsuits. We'll have a look at the kind of men you are before you're welcomed to our planet!"