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The telescopic view shifted; for a moment the planet was completely off-screen, and then its curvature came into the screen against a star-scattered background. They were almost in to two thousand miles now; Karffard was yelling to stop acceleration and trying to put the ship into a spiral orbit. Suddenly they caught a glimpse of one of the ships. "She's in trouble." That was Paul Koreff's voice.

"She's leaking air and water vapor like crazy." "Well, is she a good guy or a bad guy?" Morland was yelling back, as though Koreff's spectroscopes could distinguish. Koreff ignored that. "Another ship making signal," he said. "She's the one coming up over the equator. Sword-World impulse code; her communication-screen combination, and an identify-yourself."

Karffard shouted, with obscenely blasphemous embellishments. "She hairpinned on us." "Well, do something about her!" Vann Larch was already doing it. The Enterprise had taken damage in the last exchange; Koreff's spectroscopes showed her halo-ed with air and water vapor.

"She's calling us." That was Paul Koreff's voice, out of the squawk-box on the desk. "Standard Sword-World impulse-code. Interrogative: What ship are you? Informative: her screen combination. Request: Please communicate." "All right," Harkaman said. "Let's be polite and communicate. What's her screen-combination?" Koreff's voice gave it, and Harkaman punched it out.