Gerard laughed, and his laugh was almost normal.

After Beeah left, Ky tried to think what to do next. What if someone attacked the station while they were docked-would the station have any warning? Would they share such warnings with the ships?

Her mind worked through possibilities with excruciating slowness, though she noticed that the chronometer was clicking over slowly, too. Station attacked, station blown, decompression-

Of course. Right now the ship shared atmosphere with the station, part of their allotment of station resources as covered by the daily dock charges. Station air, station water. But that meant if the station lost atmosphere, so would they.

So the first thing was to button up. It would take longer for Beeah to get back aboard, and cargo to load, but she could worry about that later.

She called down to drives, where Quincy was presumably still working with her subordinates to plan the quick replacement of the sealed unit.

"Yes, Captain?" Quincy didn't sound scared. Ky hoped she herself

didn't.

"Just in case, I want to button the ship up. Beeah's off ship, but the dockside intercom works; we checked it."

"Good thinking, Captain," Quincy said. "I should have thought of

that. I'll be right up to give you a hand."

In the next few minutes, system by system, they shut off all the connections to the stations but the communication lines and the docking grapples. Air, water, cargo bay hatches... all sealed. Ky watched the shipboard systems come online, one by one, looking

for signs of anything wrong. All the telltales stayed green as they should. Their reserve water tanks were full, their growth chambers properly stocked and balanced.

Suddenly the comdesk lit: incoming call from the stationmaster, with visual. A stocky man in uniform glared from the screen. "Glennys Jones: report status to Stationmaster."

"Captain Vatta, Glennys Jones, status docked."

"Our sensors indicate you've closed hatches and withdrawn from station circulation: explain."

"Concern for safety," Ky said. "If there's an attack on this station-"

"You have data suggesting an attack on this station?"

"The ansibles were attacked," Ky said. "Someone has the capacity

and willingness to attack space targets. This is a big one. If the

station loses air, I don't want to lose mine."

"Oh. Well, we understand you have a crewman on the station, is that correct?"

"Yes, it is. Beeah Chok, engineering second; he's on an errand for me."

"What kind of errand?"

"We need some equipment," Ky said. "I sent him to purchase it."

"He should return to your ship. Station Security will inform him."

The signal clicked off. Ky stared at the blank, silent screen.

"This isn't good," Amat said, coming onto the bridge and settling in the pilot's seat.

"I know that," Ky said. She glanced at him; his face was set. "You

were in the space force, Riel-any advice?"

"Not a lot of options here, Captain. Glad you came back up when you did." "Maybe Beeah will have good news for us," Ky said. She didn't believe it, but she could hope.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

An embargo on all ship components," Ky said. "Why?"

"To prevent our giving aid and comfort to the enemy," Beeah said.

Station Security had delivered him to dockside hours after that last contact from the Stationmaster's office. He leaned against the

bulkhead and took another bite of sandwich; he'd arrived rumpled and hungry. "They don't want us taking a sealed unit to Secundus."

"I don't want to take a sealed unit to Secundus," Ky said. "I want to

put it into my own ship so I can take tractors to Belinta."

"That's another problem," Beeah said.

"What, tractors?"

"Yes, Captain. You see, they aren't convinced that what we have

are tractors for Belinta. They think 'agricultural equipment' is just a

cover for weapons and things for the rebels."

"Why would they think that?" Ky said. "We have a contract with Belinta... I told everyone that and it's the truth. FarmPower has the manifests of what they sent, as well. I can prove-"

"Captain, don't glare at me. I know that. But they're in a panic.

Nobody thought Secundus had the weapons to hit the ansible platforms. What they say is that you were using your own money, and borrowed money; if you really were hired by Belinta, why

wasn't Belinta's name on the funds transfer? And they know our holds weren't large enough to take the equipment without dismantling it. FarmPower told them so, and apparently someone at FarmPower suspects we sold the farm machinery and bought weapons with it."

"From whom?" Ky said. She felt like someone caught in a bad play.

"I haven't dealt with anyone but FarmPower, the bank, and the embassy-except for buying that stupid sprayer."

"I didn't say they were rational. They're scared, Captain, and they're determined not to let us have any ship components."

"Great."

"And they would appreciate it, they said, if you would pay all docking fees up to date immediately and on a daily basis hereafter."

Ky tried to think of a suitable epithet but nothing seemed strong enough for the situation. "Why don't they just insist on coming aboard and inspecting the machinery for themselves?" she asked.

"They probably would, but they're afraid we might have it booby- trapped. They figure if they hang onto us, we can't deliver it, and if we blow up with them, it serves us right."

"So why didn't they come to me directly?"

"Well..." Beeah looked at the deck, and Ky wished she had a scanner to read the inside of his head. She'd never seen him blush

before. "It's... they think if they open a link, you'll do something. It would let you set off something, they said."

"Oh, for-" She still could not think of the right comment for that

kind of boneheaded stupidity. A worse thought occurred. "So if the

station does blow up, they'll probably blame me-and maybe Vatta

Transport-even if we had nothing to do with it!"

"I guess they might," Beeah said. It was clear he hadn't thought of that. She watched his expression change as he took it in. "Captain...

what are you going to do?"

She hadn't a clue. But captains weren't supposed to say that.