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Updated: May 8, 2025
Then the ship lifted out to an orbit a thousand miles off-planet, followed by swarms of armored work-craft and cargo-lighters; the rest of the work was more easily done in space. At the same time, the four two-hundred-foot pinnaces that would be carried aboard were being finished. Each of them had its own hyperdrive engines, and could travel as far and as fast as the ship herself.
There was no query from the planet. But Gwenlyn said that there were riots down below. They could be serious enough to absorb the attention usually given to routine. But there was another reason for this inattention. Garen was a part of the Mekinese empire which was not encouraged to trade off-planet except through Mekin.
To use up the funds available, they had to buy up not only all the stock of all the risk-insurance companies of Krim, but all stock in all off-planet companies owned by investors on Krim. Then time passed, and ships in space arrived unmolested in port. Cargoes were delivered intact. Insurers observed that the risk-insurance companies had not collapsed and could still pay off if necessary.
The solar system of Mekin was an especially well-stocked hunting-ground for such marauders as Bors and his crew declared themselves to be so long as word did not get to ground on Mekin. But it did not get down. From time to time at intervals of a few hours specks appeared in emptiness. Mekin monopolized the off-planet trade of its satellite world.
"I doubt we can get her off-planet again, let alone into hyperspace." "Well, we'll get you and your crew to Marduk in the Nemesis, then." They were both speaking loudly, above the clank, and clatter of machinery below. "I hope you didn't think I'd leave you stranded here." "I don't know how either of us will be received. Space Vikings haven't been exactly popular on Marduk, lately.
If your friends are a meat-getting party from Dara, as I believe, they should cover up their tracks, get off-planet as fast as possible, and pray that no signs of their former presence are ever discovered. That would be their best first move, certainly!" "What should I do?" she asked helplessly. "I'm far from sure. At a guess, and for the moment, probably nothing.
Even the ordinary spacesuit would have been no protection; the glass and rubber and plastic would have disintegrated in a matter of minutes. People came to Niflheim, and worked the mines and uranium refineries and chemical plants, but they did so inside power-driven and contragravity-lifted armor, and they lived on artificial satellites two thousand miles off-planet.
After a while, it came back empty and I got on, and when the crowd pushed off on the top level, I put my hamper back on contragravity and towed it out into the outdoor air, which by this time had gotten almost as cool as a bake-oven. I looked up at the sky, where everybody else was looking. The Peenemünde wasn't visible; it was still a few thousand miles off-planet.
It was an operations-report sheet, to be referred to if necessary, but otherwise simply to be filed at the end of the day. A voice crackled overhead. "Attention Traffic," said the voice. "The following report has been received and verified as off-planet. Message follows."
She had given up those hopes, forced herself to repress them and think about her future in the Order instead. To suddenly have them back once she'd given the Ranger what help she could, of course was almost too much to believe. And to be making her first trip off-planet aboard a Navy craft, with a Ranger, was something beyond her wildest dreams.
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