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changed tack, but it was enough to give me a flavor of what most of the discussion with Gerangi had been about.
    “Hey, Danny-boy, look on the bright side,” Angel said. “You’re a tough guy, you told me you were always a good leader. You’ll be a natural. Beats going back to see the judge, doesn’t it?”
    He had me there. Going back to Texas had looked palatable only when I was expecting imminent death. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I must’ve made a decision, but I wasn’t aware of it. Maybe I had actually made it in Cleveland. Maybe what I had decided was to go with the flow.
    “All right,” I said, “I’m a space pirate. Now what? I mean what’s my job?”
    “Right now, you got it easy,” Angel replied. “After all, there’s not much you can do ’til you learn the language. After that, you’ll be with me, on the Strike Force.”
    “And what in hell is a Strike Force?” I asked.
    “That’s the boarding party,” Angel told me with a grin. “We’re the guys who go over to the other guys, kick the shit out of them, and take their ship.”
    “Boarding party? Angel, are you trying to tell me that these guys fly around the galaxy in starships and they need boarding parties? What do you do, lash a rope to an antenna and swing across in a space suit?”
    “Not exactly,” he laughed. I was glad at least one of us could find some humor in the situation.
    “Angel, I’m not sure I’m cut out for this,” I said.
    “Bullshit,” he said. “Come on, let’s get you settled. You’re gonna love it. I know.”
    I most certainly did not love it, at least not right away. I wasn’t treated as a prisoner—that much was true. I had free run of the base. What would have happened had I tried to leave is another question, but I never put it to the test. It was easier to stay there and know that Texas could no longer touch me. The real problem was boredom. There was nothing for me to do.
    Everyone else, including Angel, was busy. Angel had been right that they were almost ready to leave. The repairs had been completed. It was now time to load the last of the supplies onto the boat, along with some units the engineers had been working on in the shop, close up the base and go.
    The main ship, piquantly named the Flying Whore, had spent its time orbiting in the shadow of the Moon. A rendezvous had been planned in a close Earth orbit, to allow Carvalho to help shield the boat from detection but they wanted to keep the time the Flying Whore spent near the planet to a minimum. Apparently, Earth’s technology had advanced to the point that Carvalho was concerned about detection if the ship spent too much time near the planet. With the Moon between the ship and the boat, no communication was possible, so the rendezvous had to be a timing pattern.
    It took them three days to do the job to Gerangi’s satisfaction. The last chore, setting boobytraps in the base, Gerangi handled himself, along with one of the engineers. Finally, Angel came by to tell me that it was time to go. This departure lacked all of the drama I remembered from watching rocket launchings at Cape Canaveral. It was more like boarding a commuter shuttle at an airport, which it probably was for the Srihani. The seat harness looked strange, but it fastened like a backpack’s across the hips and chest and proved easy enough for me to figure out. I sat there tensely, expecting a god-awful blast and to be squashed back into my seat like an astronaut. Instead, there was a gentle, sustained push, a lot like going down the entrance ramp on the freeway. After about a half hour, there was an announcement overhead. Too bad it was all Greek to me.
    But Angel listened to it, then turned to me. “We’ll be on the ship in fifteen minutes,” he said. “No sweat.”
    Hello galaxy, good-bye Earth. The one thing I still regret, though, is that I’d never had the chance to see Earth from space.



Chapter 4
    I t took a little while to get accustomed to the