Suddenly, silently, a duplicate of herself appeared behind Krueger. She was dressed in a red Fleet captain's uniform, and a pendant dangled from its chain around her neck. A cut over her right eye dripped crimson blood onto the gray floor tiles.

With an effort, Susan eased all emotion from her face. She hoped the shock hadn't shown when her duplicate appeared; she didn't want Krueger to know what she suddenly realized would happen.

She had to keep him from noticing, had to buy time for her duplicate. She forced air through her strained vocal cords.

"What…" she started, then stopped. She tried again, and this time the question came out a barely discernible exhalation of breath: "What are you doing here?"

Amazement washed over his features. "You mean, you really don't know?"

Susan didn't answer. How could she? She didn't know.

Krueger shrugged then said, "I guess it doesn't make much difference now. After all, I am going to kill you anyway. You might as well know what this is all about before you die."

At that instant, the other Susan stepped up close behind Krueger and gave him a quick karate chop behind the left ear. He pitched forward, the arm holding the pistol flailing out, the barrel catching Susan a glancing blow over her right eye. She staggered back a step as Krueger crumbled to the floor at her feet.

Her fully dressed duplicate looked at the man stretched out in front of her, then gave her a knowing glance and stepped to the door. It irised open, and she went through without a word, dabbing at the cut above her eye with the back of her hand.

Susan stood unmoving, gazing down at the unconscious Krueger. What had just happened was beyond belief. Yet, it had happened.

Why had her duplicate hit Krueger just as he was about to tell her what was happening? Had she done it for some specific reason? And if so, what was that reason?

Just now, she didn't have time to work that out. For the first time since all this had begun, she knew precisely what she must do.

Stepping over Krueger's body, she went to the closet on the far side of the room and took down her uniform. She ignored the bleeding gash over her right eye and quickly got dressed. After pulling on her boots and fastening them, she removed the pendant from the pouch at her waist and slipped it over her head.

She held the lump of cold metal lightly in her prosthetic fingers, concentrating on the exact instant, only a few moments ago, when her duplicate had appeared behind Krueger. She pictured herself standing naked before him, while he held a blaster pistol on her.

It didn't work. For some reason, she couldn't make the jump. And yet, she knew she must. She had seen it happen.

She tried again, with exactly the same result.

Then, suddenly, she realized what was wrong. Her mental image of that instant was not complete. It wasn't specific enough. She had to re-create the exact circumstances in her mind, remembering everything from the grossest element to the most minute detail. She even had to remember her thought processes for that instant in time.

She built up the mental image bit by bit, until she was certain it was a precise copy of the actual occurrence. Then she added her thoughts just prior to her duplicate appearing behind Krueger. She had thought that Krueger's presence in her room meant Admiral Renford was behind the attempts on her life.

Still nothing.

What was missing? She held in her mind the exact scene as she had experienced it before. She held the thought she had been thinking. Why wasn't the jump taking place?

Then it hit her. She had to actually see herself appear behind Krueger.

Dressed in Fleet red, a pendant hanging from its silver chain around her neck, the bleeding gash over her right eye…

Again, as she had so many times in the past few days, she felt the dizziness. And the throbbing ache built behind her eyes.

In that instant she stood behind Krueger, just as she had watched herself do a few minutes before. He was about to say something, something her past self wanted to hear. Something she wanted to hear.

Could she let him say it? She hadn't let him say it before, but could she now?

No-because she hadn't!

With practiced accuracy she delivered her karate chop, and Krueger fell forward. The barrel of his pistol caught her naked self above the right eye as he went down.

For an instant, as her other self staggered back a step, she thought about finishing Krueger off, but she couldn't. She had not done so before, when she had watched herself strike him down, so she would not do it now.

She glanced at the blaster the man still held in his hand. Should she take it?

No! Again, because she hadn't before.

She threw that other Susan a glance as she went to the door. It irised open and, wiping at the cut over her right eye, she stepped out into the corridor.

Just as she had watched herself do before.

Susan shuffled down the corridor in Luna's one-sixth standard gravity, trying to put as much distance as possible between herself and the man laying on the hospital room floor. When Krueger came to, he would again come after her.

She had at first thought that Hyatt's impostor was behind these attempts on her life, and he could still be responsible for some of them. But now it was becoming increasingly clear that Admiral Renford was at least partly responsible- he had sent Krueger after her.

Why? Why did Renford want her dead?

She tried to force that question from her mind; she didn't want to deal with it. She wanted to forget the whole thing, to get onboard Photon and simply head out into the asteroid belt, or to some other star system entirely-anywhere she could be safe and away from it all.

But she knew she couldn't. They would follow, continuing the attacks until they killed her.

If she couldn't stop them first.

She would have to accomplish that alone-Susan knew that now. Clayton would not believe her story, any more than Karl would. No one would believe what was happening to her. From here on, she would have to depend strictly on her own resources.

So, what now?

Instantly, some of it began to fall into place. Hyatt's impostor had called her at Darcy's apartment, telling her to meet him at the mining camp. That had been just after the real Hyatt had called to say he would meet her at the ship.

But Krueger somehow found out about the meeting and got there first. He killed Hyatt's impostor.

Or had it been the real Hyatt Krueger had killed? Might he be working for the impostor? Was the real Hyatt actually dead, and had the plan been to eliminate both Susan and Hyatt simultaneously?

If that was true, it meant Hyatt's impostor was still alive. He was here, in Luna City-somewhere. But where? Where could she find that other Hyatt?

Then she knew. If he was taking the real Hyatt's place, she could probably find him in Hyatt's office.

There was no longer a guard outside the office when she arrived, and the receptionist who had been stationed in the anteroom earlier was gone as well. She stepped to the inner office's entrance, and the door irised open.

The impostor sat behind the small gray desk, signing papers. He looked exactly like Hyatt-the dead Hyatt, the real Hyatt.

Or was he the real Hyatt?

He looked up and smiled as Susan entered. A pendant like the one she wore hung from a silver chain around his neck.

"I've been expecting you, Captain," he said, motioning her to a straight-backed chair beside the desk. "We have much to discuss."