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Might just prove our case.”
    Bird shook his head.
    “Bird, for God’s sake.”
    “Ben,” he said firmly.
    Ben did not understand. He flatly did not understand.
    “Just go easy on him,” Bird said.
    “So what’s he to us?”
    “A human being.”
    “That’s no damn recommendation,” Ben muttered. But it was definitely a mistake to argue with Bird in his present mood: Bird owned the ship. Ben shook his head.
    “I’ll just get the pictures.”
    “You don’t understand, do you?”

    “Understand what?”
    “What if it was you out there?”
    “I wouldn’t be in that damn mess, Bird! You wouldn’t be.”
    “You’re that sure.”
    “I’m sure.”
    “Ben, you mind my asking—what ever happened to your folks?”
    “What’s that to do with it?”
    “Did they ever make a mistake?”
    “My mama wasn’t the pilot.—That ship’s not going to be book mass, with that tank rupture. Center of mass is going to be off, too. Need to do a test burn in a little while, all right? I don’t want to leave anything to guesswork.”
    “Yeah. Fine. Nothing rough. Remember we have a passenger.”
    Ben frowned at him, and kept his mouth shut.
    Bird said, pulling closer, “I got to tell you, Ben, right up front, we’re not robbing this poor sod. He’s got enough troubles. Hear me? Don’t you even be thinking about it.”
    “It’s not robbing. It’s perfectly legal. It’s your rights, Bird, same as he has his.
    The same as he’d take his, if things were the other way around. That’s the way the system is set up to work.”
    “There’s rights, and there’s what is right.”
    “He’s not your friend! He’s not even anybody’s friend you know. Bird, for God’s sake, you got a major break here. Breaks like this don’t just fall into your lap, and they’re nothing if you don’t make them work for you. That’s why there’s laws—to even it up so you can work with people the way they are, Bird, not the way you want them to be.”
    “You still have to look in mirrors.”
    “What’s mirrors to do with anything?”
    “If we’re due anything, we’re due the expenses.”
    “Expenses, hell! We’re due haulage, medical stuff, chemkit, and a fat salvage fee at minim, we’re due that whole damn ship , is what we’re due, Bird.”
    “It won’t work.”
    “Hell if it won’t work, Bird! I’ll show it to you in the code. You want me to show it to you in the code?”
    Bird looked put out with him. Bird said, with a sigh, “I know the rules.”
    Bird had him completely puzzled. He took a chance, asked: “Bird,—have I done something wrong?”
    “No. Just give me warning on that burn. I’m going to shoot some antibiotics into our passenger, get him a little more comfortable.”
    Ben said, vexed, figuring to argue it later, “Better keep a running tab on the stuff, if that’s the way you’re playing it.”
    “There isn’t any damn tab, Ben! Quit thinking like a computer. The guy can have kidney and liver damage, he can have fractures, he can be concussed. You can calc a nice gentle burn while you’re at it. We’re not doing any sudden moves with him.”
    “All right. Fine. Slow and easy.” Ben tapped the stylus at the keys, with temper boiling up in him as Bird left—downright hurt, when it came to it. He tapped it several times on the side of the board, shoved away from the toehold and caught up with Bird’s retreat. “Bird, dammit, what in hell have I done?”
    Bird looked at him as if he were adding things in his head.
    Maybe, Ben thought, maybe Bird just didn’t like to be argued with. Or maybe it was that pretty-boy face of Dekker’s. Dekker was a type he thoroughly detested, because for some people there didn’t need to be any sane reason to do them favors, didn’t matter they were dumb as shit or that they’d cut your throat for their advantage, people believed them because they looked good and they talked smooth.
    It suddenly dawned on him that Bird was acting soft-headed about