“It is not for discussion,” Aranimas said curtly. “I will have robots to serve me. The human Derec said that there would be robots at any human world, that they would trade with us if we come in peace. We will allow them to think we come in peace and then take what we need. Then, and only then, will we set course for Mrassdf.”

Wolruf’s voice took on a pleading, whining tone. “The Narwe are truly worthless ones, there can be no doubt. But if we were to lose the jewel in hand while reaching for a bit of glass-”

The robot interrupted himself. “At this point, Aranimas produced a weapon I cannot identify and pointed it at Wolruf. It seemed to cause Wolruf great distress.”

Then it continued in Aranimas’s voice. “You disappoint me, Wolruf. I thought you had more vision than that. Without the robots, I will have to surrender that jewel to Wiwera when we return-which I have no intention of doing. Better that you and I are turned to atoms here than to give up the key to such as Wiwera.”

The robot fell silent, and Derec found himself with nothing to say. One more stop, and the raiders were going home with their treasure. Where that stop was, there was no guessing. There were hundreds of Spacer facilities scattered over hundreds of light-years. It could be a Customs station lying between Settler and Spacer territory, a mining or processing center, or even one of the research complexes. It might be staffed with humans, humans and robots, or robots alone.

It didn’t matter. He would never see it.

Aranimas would use him-his knowledge, his voice, perhaps even his image-to gain entry to the installation. And when the alien’s business there was done, the ship would leave for Mrassdf, where Derec was destined to be nothing better than a slave, and perhaps nothing more than a curiosity.

The realization of his impotence shattered Derec. He had taken the lone road and done everything he could by himself. He had schemed and blustered and fought and finagled his way past each succeeding challenge.

But the challenge now facing him seemed insurmountable. Sometime within the next few days, he had to escape-from a ship in which he could not yet even find his way around, from a jailer whose capabilities he had not yet fully gauged, to a refuge whose promise of safety was more hopeful than real.

The fight drained out of him as he confronted the bleak possibilities. Aranimas had all the advantages. He would have Derec watched constantly while they were docked at the installation-if they docked at all. And Derec could not move sooner, for he could never hold the ship. He was outnumbered eighty to one by the crew.

All Derec had was the robot, and that was not enough. I can’t do it, he thought despairingly. But I can’t just give up-

The conflicting thoughts chased each other through his mind, neither gaining the advantage. Weary and confused, he retreated to the far side of the room and huddled there against the base of the wall.

I’ve got to have help, he realized at last. I’ve got to stop trying to do it all myself-got to trust someone. It’s that or resign myself to living the rest of my life on an alien world-

And then it came to him that there was someone else on board who was just as alone, just as helpless, who might take not only comfort but courage from a companion. Someone, in fact, who had already proclaimed herself Derec’s friend.

If she’ll help, Derec thought, we just might do it, at that-

An hour of waiting had slipped by. Reinvigorated by hope, Derec’s attention had wandered from watching the doorway to playing with the pieces of the puzzle.

“ ’Ur back,” a gruff voice intruded.

Derec raised his head and looked toward Wolruf. “I went walking. You’ve been looking for me, haven’t you?”

“Aranimas was looking for ‘u,” Wolruf corrected. “‘U stay ‘ere now, okay?”

“Is he coming back?”

“Boss iss resting now. ‘E’ll come to see ‘u in the morning. Best ‘u be ‘ere,” Wolruf said, turning away.

“You got in trouble with Aranimas because I was gone, didn’t you?” Derec called after her.

The caninoid stopped, looked back, and shrugged.

“I’m sorry,” Derec said. “I put you in a bad position.”

“Iss nothing new. I put myself therr enough.”

Derec smiled. “Tell me something, Wolruf. What are you doing here? Why are you working for someone like Aranimas?”

“Too long a story to explain.”

“You’re not on board by choice, are you.”

“Too complicated to explain.”

“I’ve got the time-and I really want to know.”

Wolruf hesitated, then advanced a few steps into the room. “Should go sleep,” she said gruffly.

“Why not do what you want to instead of what you ought to?”

Crouching an arm’s length away, Wolruf grinned. “That the secret of ‘ur success?”

It took longer than it should have to sort out the story. Wolruf had never had to talk about her home and life to someone who did not know the thousand and one things that a person living within a culture knows without thinking. Again and again, Derec had to ask her to go back and fill in some clarifying detail.

Beyond that, there were language problems, as some of what Wolruf was trying to convey ran up against the limits of her Standard vocabulary. At other times she seemed to be talking around some fact or idea that she did not feel comfortable disclosing.

Piecing together what he heard and filling in a few of the blanks on his own, Derec gained a reasonably coherent answer to his question. Despite Wolruf’s boast of two hundred inhabited worlds, the crew of the ship was from a single solar system. Aranimas’s kind-the Erani-and the Narwe lived on the second planet, Mrassdf, which by Wolruf’s description was a hot, windswept, unpleasant world. Wolruf’s kind-the name was just as unpronounceable as Wolruf’s own-and the elusive star-creatures were from the temperate fourth planet.

The relationship between the Narwe and the Erani was like that between sheep and their shepherds, except that the Narwe were more intelligent and physically adept than sheep. But the comparison was still apt. The Narwe vastly outnumbered the Erani, but the Erani-aggressive, inventive, acquisitive-were completely dominant.

The relationship between the two worlds was rather more complex, and Derec did not completely understand it. Neither planet seemed to have a unified government. That might have been the only thing that kept them from going to war, for there clearly was a basic antipathy between them. Despite that, there was active commerce between the worlds. At the center of it were trading companies operatedoperated by several factions of Erani and goods produced by several families of Wolruf’s people.

Wolruf would not talk much about Aranimas in particular, but he seemed to be a younger member of one of the more powerful Erani factions. Derec gleaned that somehow Wolruf’s family had run afoul of Aranimas’s trading company.

“My service on this mission lifts thedhierggra from my family,” she explained.

Thedhierggra, Derec determined after much questioning, was equivalent to a blacklist-while it was in effect, no Erani would deal with the family. That made Wolruf, in essence, an indentured servant-a slave, working off her family’s debt.

“Why were you chosen?”

“I am youngest, least valuable to my family.”

Derec did not want to rush to judge an entire culture on one story from one member, but he found himself getting angry over the injustice. “Is that why Aranimas treats you the way he does? Is that part of the deal, that he gets to push you around?”

“That iss the Erani way. They treat everyone so.”

“Not each other,” Derec said. “That’s what makes it wrong.”

It was then that Derec realized that somewhere in the course of the conversation, something unexpected had happened. He had drawn Wolruf out selfishly, calculating. It was just another angle to exploit. But as he had listened to her, his false sympathy for her plight became real empathy for her pain. She was a victim, just as he was.