"Ferenc Szabo commanding. We are past the no-return limit, and preparing to settle on a planet that appears at- tractive and promises comfort." Barton skipped the co- ordinates. "At present there is no mental coercion from the Others or from the Children. In a short while, such coercion will be immaterial, for 1 shall have evacuated (his ship and totally cut power on it, as ordered. As you know, there are no facilities to restore it, this side of the dead belt." That we know about, you mean. But Barton didn't say it; after the brief pause, he read on.

"I suggest, strongly, that any human forces entering mis immediate volume of space in future, do so with utmost caution. Ferenc Szabo, commanding."

"The last words Base will ever receive from us," said Ferenc.

Barton found them fitting enough; he nodded. Then ano^r thought came. "You're leaving them hanging,

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aren't you? The last they knew, Soong was in the saddle and spurring hell-for-leather for the home corral."

Ferenc grinned. "You're right." So when he read the message into the F.T.L. Pnasewave transmitter, he ad- libbed a P.S. to the effect that while the latest transfer of command, had entailed a certain amount of conflict, Captain Soong was unharmed and would remain so. For a moment. Barton thought the man was going to say some- thing more. But after a brief hesitation, Perenc shut down the Phasewave, both send and receive sides, and shook his head. "There has to be an end."

Now, even without the side-effects of any weird pills, Barton thought things moved pretty fast. After he met Limila in the galley for lunch, and brought her up to date on the things he'd forgotten to tell her during their first meeting after all the shootout, he went back up to Control. He didn't know why; he had no official status.

But that was where things were happening, so that's where he went. And found Ferenc talking at a view- screen that had Dahil oa the other end of it, in the nursery.

The gist was that Dahil and Tiriis and their human helpers were to get themselves, and the Children, ^md all supplies of the Children's needs that were in the nursery area, to the aux boats' docking facility within the next six hours. Barton thought that was a little quick for the Job, but he'd misguessed Ferenc Szabo before, too.

Dahil wasn't buying it, though. "No do. We stay here."

Perenc didn't argue. "Suit yourself. I'm evacuating the rest of the ship-taking the crew and all supplies and removable equipment outside your area, down to the planet we're orbiting. If you get lonesome up here, or hungry, you can give me a call."

Barton had to like the way Ferenc did it; it was much the same thing he'd have done himself, probably. The screen went blank, and Barton said, "You want every- thing downside fast; is that it?"

Perenc nodded. "Yes. The sooner we're down on End- atheline, irrevocably, the sooner I can relax. Whatever happens, after that." ' '

Barton must have let bis puzzlement show, for Ferenc said, "Bndatheline? What else? This world is the end of the line. for us."

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"Yeh. I guess you're right.*

be not.. *

Or, Barton thought, may-

After a little more noodling, Dahil did what he'd been told in the first place. Not quite in time to meet Ferenc's original deadline, but at least the nursery was evacuated.

Barton decided the deadline had been more of a psycho- logical necessity than any other kind, because it was going to take the two aux boats a lot of trips to get every- thing downside. ]

The Others and the Children were the crucial part, i of course. At first Ferenc insisted that no one but himself could ferry any of them down. "I'm the one man on this ship they won't play games with, I think."

"Bullshit," said Barton, and saw the other man stiffen, then relax. "I mean," Barton said, speaking quietly now, "once they're in an aux boat going downside, they won't screw around with their pilot."

Slowly, Ferenc smiled. "You're right, of course. Pos- sibly I've been getting a bit paranoid. I don't suppose you'd know about that."

"Sure not." Ferenc blinked, and Barton couldn't leave it at that. "Sometime we'll get us drunk, Ferenc, and I'll tell you."

There was no question iJabout Ferenc Szabo handling one aux boat; the other was up for grabs, though. Ren Bearpaw had toured half a continent with one, but all in atmosphere, never coming down and plowing into air from the outside. Whereas, Barton had never tried to tun one of the things in his life but sure's hell he'd landed bigger craft. Soong and Nargilosa weren't even in consid- oration, though both had the training, and Command-Third Kocco-well, Ferenc said, "I dont know what kind oi done he's on, but I wouldn't trust him to carry me on s piggy-back ride."

What governed, finally, was that somebody bad tc sta'

On ship and occupy the saddle, and Bearpaw had officia Status and Barton didn't. So, after a quick instruction ses sion with Ferenc Szabo, Barton got the nod to play Charo With the second aux boat.

First trip, Ferenc took Dahil down, along with aboi half the Children and their human helpers; supplies fille '"e rest of the landing vehicle. Following instruction A ton waited with his own load until Ferenc had lande

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and passed up the okay for Barton to follow. Riding with Barton were Tiriis and the rest of the Children-larger now, and being very quiet. Some of the nursery supplies were going to have to wait for a later drop; the boat was about as full as Barton figured it could handle.

Coming down. Barton tried to get the feel of his con- trols. He wasn't worried, really; he was riding good equip- ment and had pretty fair confidence in it and in himself.

When he hit air, he found he was right; the boat handled fine, and he homed in and landed alongside Ferenc's.

The other boat was open, and people standing outside looking healthy enough, so Barton unbuttoned his, too, and got out. He felt a slight decompression, a whoosh of outrushing air, when he cracked the first seal; nothing big, though. When he got outside, himself. Barton smelled scents he hadn't known before. He was reminded of the difference between the fragrances of Tilara and those of Earth, but here the strangeness went a bit further.

Breeze and temperature were mild. As a child in school. Barton had first learned temperature in Fahren- heit; he still had to pause a moment to translate. All right;

in the low twenties Celsius, it felt like. Either scale, it was pleasant enough.

Underfoot, the soft blue-green stuff that looked not much like grass or moss, either one, smelled a little bit^like mustard. The aroma was light, though, and after a few minutes he didn't notice it any more.

Off a way he saw gnarly trees with long, pointed leaves, and bushes clustered in a shallow ravine that probably hid a stream. Looking up at the pale sky. Barton' took a deep breath. If they were stuck here, he thought, they could have picked a worse place!

As Barton had figured, downloading took a lot of trips.

When dusk came and they stopped work for the night, he estimated they were roaybe a tenth of the way done with the job. Of course, they'd been less than a full day at it Planet's days at this longitude were several hours out of synch with the ship's days he'd been observing;

he'd been up a long time, and went to bed as soon as he'd eaten.

The funny part, next day, was that all of them 'nearly forgot about Soong. When Ferenc remembered, and they went to get the captain and begin loading his stuff, the man simply wouldn't believe that someone couldn't w't,

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kiss it and make it well. He wanted Humpty-Dumpty put back together, and never mind that everybody was fresh out of king's horses. Finally, Nargilosa put her arm around the shoulders of the tired, fat old man, and led him off to the aux boat where his comfort goodies were being loaded. At least. Barton thought, Soong would have an easy life downside, as long as he lasted.

The next things they took down were several loads of miscellaneous metal and plastic, for building shelters.

Nobody downside had minded sleeping outdoors the first night, but to the "west" a cloud front was approach- ing, bringing rain. The odd-looking trees were big enough to provide wood for framing, but none of the tools on ship were well adapted for cutting wood. Barton wished he'd brought a hand-laser, though, of course, he wouldn't have dared use it in the fighting-too easy to slice through essential circuitry in the bulkheads. But when he men- tioned the idea, Ferenc set a couple of technicians to work, and by evening they had cannibalized together a unit that one now could carry. It looked pretty haywire to Barton, but it worked, and speeded up construction quite

a lot.

The next day he and Limila moved downside, bring- ing along all the stuff from their quarters whether it seemed useful or not. As Barton said, "You never know."

They worked long hours now. Before dawn each morn- ing the aux boats first lifted, and made their last landings of the day in twilight. Barton lost count of the days; on the eighth or maybe the tenth, the ship was gutted of everything it was feasible to remove. A lot faster job ;, than transshipping cargo had been-proportionately, any- i- way-because the aux boats had little fold-out loading cranes, and the operation could use more machinery and less muscle than in the earlier chore.

On lus own boat, or so. be thought of it now. Barton downloaded a few items he didn't bother to tell Ferenc Szabo about. The thing was, he wasn't sure, yet, about Ferenc's plans for the ship. Since he might not agree with them, he wanted to keep his options open. And for the same reason, when Ferenc gathered a party to go up one last time, inspect the ship and shut it down for keeps, Barton unobtrusively joined the group. Making a full pass^^er load on the aux boat, along with Ferenc, Ren

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