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He puzzled briefly over it, but his immediate concern was for shelter. Apparently he was still where he had been knocked out. There was a light coming from the little station, and he headed toward that, fumbling for the few quarters that represented his entire fortune. Maybe it would have been better if the tubemen had killed him.
The tubemen moved forward toward Feldman. There was no indecision. To them, apparently, trial had been held and sentence passed. "Wait a minute," Feldman began. "Billings died of " A fist snaked past his raised hand and connected with his jaw. He bounced off a wall. A wrench sailed toward him, glanced off his arm, and ripped at his muscles. Another heavy fist struck.
Outside, the tubemen took turns holding Feldman and beating him while the passengers disembarked from their shuttle. As he slumped into unconsciousness, he had a picture of Chris Ryan's frozen face as she moved steadily toward the port station. Martian It was night when Feldman came to, and the temperature was dropping rapidly. He struggled to sit up through a fog of pain.
He barely glanced at them, punched a mark for each on his checkoff sheet, and handed them back. "Deckmen forward, tubemen to the rear," he ordered. "Navaho blasts in fifteen minutes. Hey, you! You're tubes." Feldman grunted. He should have expected it. Tubemen had the lowest lot of all the crew.
Feldman began gathering it up, but the chief was no longer laughing. A big hand grabbed up the space ticket suddenly, and there was no friendliness now on Ben's face. "Art Billing's card!" Ben told the other tubemen. "Five trips I made with Art. He was saving his money, going to buy a farm on Mars. Five trips and one more to go before he had enough. Now you show up with his ticket!"
A lot of the handholds were missing, and he had to throw himself along by erratic leaps. He was gaining proficiency, but not enough to handle himself if the ship blasted off. Time was growing short when he reached the aft bunkroom where the other tubemen were waiting. "Ben," one husky introduced himself. "Tube chief. Know how to work this?"
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