“No doubt,” I jeered.
“Alive. It is easy to kill you.”
I could not doubt that. Carter and I were little more than rats in a trap, here in the chart-room. But Miko wanted to take me alive: that was not so simple. He added persuasively:
“We want you to help us navigate. Will you?”
“No.”
“Will you help us, Captain Carter? Tell your cub, this Haljan, to yield. You are fools. We understand that Haljan has been handling the ship’s mathematics. Him we need most.”
Carter roared: “Get back from there! This is no truce!”
I shoved aside his levelled bullet-projector. “Wait a minute!” I called to Miko. “Navigate––where?”
“Oh,” he retorted, “that is our business, not yours. When you lay down your weapons and come out of there, I will give you the course.”