“People of Terra—­”

Martian, Venusian, Asteroid colonist—­inwardly they were still all Terran and on that point he would rest.  He was a Terran appealing to his own kind.

“People of Terra, we come before you to ask justice—­” from somewhere the words came easily, flowing from his lips to center on a patch of light ahead.  And that “justice” rang with a kind of reassurance.

Chapter XVII

IN CUSTODY

“To those of you who do not travel the star trails our case may seem puzzling—­” the words were coming easily.  Dane gathered confidence as he spoke, intent on making those others out there know what it meant to be outlawed.

“We are Patrol Posted, outlawed as a plague ship,” he confessed frankly.  “But this is our true story—­”

Swiftly, with a flow of language he had not known he could command, Dane swung into the story of Sargol, of the pest they had carried away from that world.  And at the proper moment he thrust a gloved hand into the cage and brought out the wriggling thing which struck vainly with its poisoned talons, holding it above the dark table so that those unseen watchers could witness the dramatic change of color which made it such a menace.  Dane continued the story of the Queen’s ill-fated voyage—­of their forced descent upon the E-Stat.

“Ask the truth of Inter-Solar,” he demanded of the audience beyond those walls.  “We were no pirates.  They will discover in their records the vouchers we left.”  Then Dane described the weird hunt when, led by the Hoobat, they had finally found and isolated the menace, and their landing in the heart of the Big Burn.  He followed that with his own quest for medical aid, the kidnapping of Hovan.  At that point he turned to the Medic.

“This is Medic Hovan.  He has consented to appear in our behalf and to testify to the truth—­that the Solar Queen has not been stricken by some unknown plague, but infested with a living organism we now have under control—­” For a suspenseful second or two he wondered if Hovan was going to make it.  The man looked shaken and sick, as if the drastic awaking they had subjected him to had left him too dazed to pull himself together.

But out of some hidden reservoir of strength the Medic summoned the energy he needed.  And his testimony was all they had hoped it would be.  Though now and then he strayed into technical terms.  But, Dane thought, their use only enhanced the authority of his description of what he had discovered on board the spacer and what he had done to counteract the power of the poison.  When he had done Dane added a few last words.

“We have broken the law,” he admitted forthrightly, “but we were fighting in self-defense.  All we ask now is the privilege of an impartial investigation, a chance to defend ourselves—­such as any of you take for granted on Terra—­before the courts of this planet—­” But he was not to finish without interruption.