"Sleep rods certainly," the Astrogator-apprentice said after a pause.
"We'll have to be prepared for the moment when they find out who we are.
And you can't re-set a hydro in a few minutes, not when we have to keep
oxgy on for the others. If we were able to turn that off and work in
suits it'd be a quicker job--we could dump before we set down and then
pile it in at once. But this way it's going to be piece work. And it all
depends on the agents at the Stat whether we have trouble or not."
"We had better break out the suits now," Ali added to Rip's estimate of
the situation. "If we set down and pile out wearing suits at once it will
build up our tale of being poor wrecked spacemen--"
Sleep rods or not, Dane thought to himself, the whole plan was one born
of desperation. It would depend upon who manned the E-Stat and how fast
the Free Traders could move once the Queen touched her fins to earth.
"Knock out their coms," that was Ali continuing to plan. "Do that first
and then we don't have to worry about someone calling in the Patrol."
Rip stretched. For the first time in hours he seemed to have returned to
his usual placid self.
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