81, 82 new hostile worlds discovered: 83 - and then another five propulsors blew their linings simultaneously and Scout-Officer John Leeming knew he would have to make a crash landing. Soon he was a prisoner of the Zangastans - and filled with a determination to get back to Earth just as soon as possible. It took the failure of an orthodox escape attempt to make him realise that his alien life-form captors knew precious little of human nature. So unprompted corroboration from another Terran prisoner held by the Lathians, Zangasta's senior allies, that said Lathians had the Willies was good enough proof that Leeming's Eustace could be pretty dangerous. Does this baffle you? Read on!

 

He knew he’d stuck his neck out and it was too late to withdraw. It had been the same since early childhood when he’d accepted dares and been sorry immediately afterward. They say that one learns from experience; if that were true the human race would now be devoid of folly. He’d learned plenty in his time and forgotten most of it within a week. So yet again he’d wangled himself into a predicament and undoubtedly would be left to wangle himself out of it as best he could. Once more he knocked at the door, a little harder but not imperatively. Behind the panels a chair scraped and a harsh voice responded with hearable impatience. “Come in!” Marching inside, he stood at attention before the desk, head erect, thumbs in line with the seams of the pants, feet at an angle of forty-fi ve degrees. A robot, he thought, just a damned robot. Fleet-Admiral Markham surveyed him from beneath bushy brows, his cold gaze slowly rising from feet to head then descending from head to feet.

 

 

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