“Panille asserts that I can make a sea landing near an occupied site called the Redoubt. He is prepared to guide us to that landing.”

Hali checked the fastenings which held Waela in the passenger couch, returned to her own seat and strapped in. The plaz directly in front of her framed a brilliant circle of cloud-covered planet.

“They meant us to die,” Ferry muttered. “Damn them!”

“Do you desire to land at the alternate site?” Bitten asked.

“Yes, land us there,” Hali said.

“There is risk,” Bitten said.

“Land us there!” Ferry shouted.

“A normal tone of voice suffices for conversational direction of this program,” Bitten said.

Ferry stared at Hali. “They meant us to die.”

“I heard you. What do you mean?”

“Murdoch said we would have to go to Colony.”

Hali looked at him, weighing his words. Was the man unaware of what he had just told her?

“So it was a set-up,” she said. “You staged that fight.”

Ferry remained silent, blinking at her.

“But you cut off one of Murdoch’s ears,” Hali said, remembering.

Ferry bared his old teeth in a terrible grin. “He did something to my Rachel. I know he did.”

Hali crossed her arms over her breast, hearing all the unspoken things in Ferry’s words. Her gaze went to the laser scalpel clipped in a breast pocket of Ferry’s singlesuit: a thin stylus with death or life in its mechanism.

He was supposed to bring the scalpel in case he needed it against me!

“I made it seem like an accident,” Ferry said. “But I knew they did something to my Rachel. And Murdoch’s the one they get to do the nasty stuff.” He nodded at Hali. “In the Scream Room. That’s where they do it.”

As he said Scream Room, he shuddered.

“So we were supposed to go to Colony and it’s destroyed,” Ferry said. “Demons, yes. Very neat. They didn’t like my asking about Rachel.”

Hali wet her lips with her tongue. “What’s . . . what’s the Scream Room?”

“In Lab One where they do the nasty stuff. It was because of Rachel, I know it was. And I drink too much. Lots of us do that after the Scream Room.”

Bitten’s voice intruded: “Correction noted.”

“What was that?” Ferry demanded.

“This is Bitten. I have acknowledged a course correction from Kerro Panille.”

“You’re going to land us in the sea?” Hali asked, filled with sudden concern for her unconscious patient.

“Near shore. Panille asserts there will be help where we land.”

“What about the demons?” Ferry asked.

“If that is a reference to native fauna, you can protect yourselves with the weapons in this freighter’s cargo.”

“You carry . . . weapons?” Hali asked.

“The cargo manifest lists food concentrates, building equipment and tools, medical supplies, groundsuits and weapons.”

Hali shook her head. “I knew you needed weapons to survive groundside, but I didn’t know they were being made shipside.”