Coran went cold with anger. "Someone must really be trying to foul me up," he raged. "She couldn't have the plague--she's never been off the earth."
"Your papers read that you just came from Mars," objected Hamlin.
"I did. We were married just before the ship left. If I were carrying the plague, I'd have it myself. She couldn't have it--"
Hamlin laughed nervously. "I wish you could convince the doctor of that. He's been taking blood tests of me ever since we left her. I'm sorry for you, Coran, but she has it. I saw the grey rash myself. It's horrible, horrible...."
Coran's mind worked like lightning. She had said she would think of something. Something to keep the stateroom to herself. There might even be a more sinister motive than that. After that picture of the man he wanted in her purse, he could believe anything of her. Maybe she even knew about him. She was faking, but how? How, since she had been securely tied when he left her? Had he started his quest at the wrong end? She must have been the woman accomplice who had got a gun through the security police guarding the prisoner.
"Deliberate murder and plotting against the welfare of the ship. If the officers agree on your guilt, you can be put to death immediately. They put you through an airlock. The regulations have to be pretty stringent on a space-ship."
Coran stood up. "Let's go up and get it over with," he said. "We'll see about your regulations."
Manacled between the two brawny crewmen, a sullen Coran rode up in the elevators. Outside the wardroom, the group stopped while Hamlin knocked. "I wish you'd let me help you," he said in a final attempt.
Coran shook his head. "I know what I'm doing."
The assembled officers stared at Coran curiously. His lip was still bruised and swollen. He stared insolently at the group and tried to thrust all other considerations out of his mind. The girl and his quest would have to wait. His immediate hurdle was to get out of this mess.
Harriman wet his lips and opened the hearing.
"I won't waste words when we all know why we're here. There is no need for formality in a hearing of this kind. The captain of the _Aphrodite_ was foully murdered, and this man who calls himself Stephen Coran was found standing over his body. There was no gun in the room and none on the prisoner. Coran's papers seem to be in order. They show him to be a prospector from Mars, en route to Venus, but may be forgeries. That can be checked. His wife is in quarantine, and will be unable to testify one way or the other."