You may rest assured of it. How
unfortunate! I am overcome with shame."
MacFife picked up a microphone. "Same here, Connie. A terrible accident.
Aye, the man who did it will hear from me."
"It was no accident," the Connie screamed.
"Ah," Galliene replied, "but you cannot prove otherwise. Commander, do
you realize what this means? You are helpless. Interplanetary law says
that a helpless space ship must be salvaged and taken in tow by the
nearest cruiser, no matter what its nationality. We will do this jointly,
the _Aquila_ and the _Sagittarius_. We will take turns towing you, my
friend. We will haul you to Terra--like any other piece of space junk."
MacFife could remain quiet no longer. "Yes, mister. And that's no' the
end o' it. We will collect the salvage fee. One half the value of the
salvaged vessel. Aye! My men will like that, since we share and share
alike on salvage. Now, put out a cable from your nose tube. I'll take ye
in tow first."
He cut the communicator off and met Rip's grin.
The two spacemen had figured out the one way to repay the Connie for his
attempts on the asteroid. They couldn't fire on him, but they could fake
an accident that would cripple him and cost Consops millions of dollars
in salvage fees.
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