Jirik smiled. "Yeah. His excuse was that he was looking for potted plants, but he sure spent a lot of time looking at the overheads, and high up on the bulkheads!" He sobered. "Well, now Cony knows that there are no spy-eyes and no report from Via. His next move is to try to find out why."
Tor was trying to control his excitement. "I guess the next part's up to me!" He said with elaborate casualness
Jirik nodded somberly. "That's right, kid. You and Bran will go into town in a couple of hours. Damn! I still don't like this!"
Bran shrugged. "Nobody does, except Tor. I wish that there were another way, too!"
Nettled by the others' lack-of enthusiasm, Tor put in edgily, "I'll be all right; you don't have to worry about me! I can take care of myself!"
Valt snickered. "No, you can't, son." He rubbed his chest where the red welts had begun to fade, and added ruefully, "I've learned that there's more to defending yourself than you might think!"
Tor looked uncertainly at Valt before replying. "I'll have Bran with me! Between us, we should be able to handle anything that comes up." his tone was no longer as assured.
Jirik's somber expression hadn't softened. "Yeah, Bran will be with you. But any single man can be overwhelmed, no matter how good he is. I want you to constantly remember that your trip into town is not a liberty. Consider yourself part of a shore party on a hostile planet; and Bran is in command of that shore party. You'll obey every order that he gives you, no matter how absurd it seems; and you'll obey immediately, without argument."
Tor snapped straight in his chair. "Yessir!" he replied crisply.
Jirik turned to Bran. "Bran, you know that I trust you implicitly. Your job is to get Tor to where he can say his piece, and then get him out again. Stay together, even in the 'fresher; and keep your eyes wide open!"
Bran nodded soberly. "You can count on me, Captain."
A faint smile touched Jirik's lips. "I know that I can, Bran. Bring him back, preferably in one piece. I've gotten kinda used to having him underfoot!"
Tor flushed with pleasure and embarrassment at the compliment.
After Bran and Tor left, Jirik and Valt puttered nervously about the ship, giving up on one job after another as their nervousness and apprehension caused mistake after mistake.
Valt finally adjourned to his cabin to try to lose himself without success in his porn vids. Jirik tried to read, but gave up after finding himself trying to read the same passage for the sixth time without understanding it. He finally went to the darkened bridge, staring out into the planet's night, willing a ground car's lights to head for the Lass.
Nearly five hours passed before.his vigil was rewarded. Jirik headed for the passenger lock at a dead run, shouting for Valt. By the time that the ground car stopped at the Lass, Jirik and Valt were jittering in the open lock. Their combined sigh of relief at the sight of both Bran and Tor climbing from the ground car was monumental, and their welcome so enthusiastic as to border on hysteria. Both Bran and Tor had to endure back clappings, hand-shakings, and repeated demands of "What Happened?" from their ship-bound comrades as they adjourned to the mess.
Jirik and Valt waited impatiently as the others filled cups of coffee and found seats. Finally, Jirik could stand it no longer.
"Well?" He demanded gratingly, looking as though he would hit someone if his question wasn't immediately answered.
Bran grinned. "He was great, Captain. The kid carried it off like a professional!"
"You didn't have to fight, then?" Valt sounded slightly disappointed
Tor shook his head. "No, sir. Actually, it was kinda nice. Fun!"
Jirik's face was beet-red with anger and frustration "Report, Dammit!" he snarled.
Bran sobered instantly. "Sorry, Captain. I'd forgotten about the pressure you've been under these last few hours. Well, we went straight into town. We figured that the best place for an ambush would be the outskirts, the industrial and residential areas. We wandered around for.a few minutes, so that anyone watching would think that we were just on liberty, rubbernecking. As soon as we could, though, we found a fairly quiet bar and went in. We took a table in the farthest corner from the door, bought drinks, and watched for something to happen."
"About fifteen minutes later," he continued after a sip of his coffee, "Four young people came in. They weren't obvious about it. They took a table some distance from ours, and ordered drinks. After a few minutes, this attractive young girl came over to our table."
"Attractive!" Tor cried, "She was gorgeous!"
Bran chuckled. "All right, 'gorgeous'. Anyway, she came over and started right in, asking Tor if he was 'really a spacer', and 'really flew between the stars on that big ship'. It was all I could do to keep from throwing up."
"I thought she was nice!" Tor protested.
This time, Bran's chuckle was joined by those of Jirik and Valt. "All right, Tor. She was nice. Of course," Bran continued, "She was told to be. At any rate, it wasn't long before she mentioned that she'd 'heard' that there had been a 'golden woman' on the ship. It went on from there. I'm sure you could fill in the dialogue yourself."
Jirik turned to Tor. "So, how did you handle it?"
Tor flushed. "Oh, it was easy, Captain. I told her mostly the truth about Via. That she was nice enough, but kinda kept to herself, didn't talk much. I told her about outrunning the pirates, and stuff like that, but she kept coming back to Via."
Bran's smile was sardonic. "She was good, Captain. She made it painless, but she found out everything there was to know about Via. Or at least everything that we wanted her to know. Tor was good, too. Very professional. I'm sure that she doesn't think Tor's the brightest light in the Galaxy, but I'm certain that she thinks she got everything that he knew."
Jirik grinned at Tor's outraged expression, but his grin was strongly tinged with relief. "Great!" he replied. "You've both done very well. With any luck, we can pretty much forget about this spy crap for awhile; at least, until we get to Wayoff. On the other hand, If Cony's a suspicious bastard, he might insist on confirming the information. So, stay alert. We're not out of danger yet!"
The four discussed the evening's adventure until quite late. The next local morning Jirik groaned as he got up early to greet the longshoremen who were to offload their cargo, and the representative from the planetary library who was to accept delivery. Since Jirik felt that it would seem suspicious if he slowed their pace after acting so hurried on Boondock, He continued to press for the earliest possible departure. That evening, at 2000 Local, the Lass lifted off.
One by one the planetary stopovers passed without incident, though the crew remained on guard. With each stopover Jirik became more and more impressed with the self-sufficiency of the Rim Worlds Coalition. Each world contributed to the whole. Boondock and Varner's World were mining planets, contributing raw materials to the manufacturing worlds of Outback, Border and Yonder. The agricultural worlds of Farout, Beyond and'Toolie fed the others. The remaining planet, Wayoff, was the trading center of the rim.
With each stop, Jirik also became more and more haunted by Bran's words, back on Boondock. If this "Rim Worlds Coalition" rebelled as a unit, the Alliance was in deep trouble.
As they lifted off from each planet in turn, the tension aboard the Lass rose slightly as the crewmen saw their planetfall on Wayoff approaching closer and closer. As they lifted from Toolie, their next-to-last stop, the tension became nearly palpable.
As soon as they jumped on the last leg of their rim voyage, the crew again assembled in the mess to discuss their situation.
Jirik summed up the fears of all of them. "This is it," he said, "If anything is going to happen, it's going to happen on Wayoff. The question is," he continued, "What can we do about it: and how can we best ensure that we leave Wayoff alive?"