Aliens Alien Harvest - By Robert Sheckley Page 0,23

I was pretty good."

"Well, that's what you're going to do now. Act the part of Dr. Myakovsky, brilliant young scientist and upcoming entrepreneur."

"Acting a part," Stan mused. "What a novel idea! But I believe I could do that."

Julie nodded. "I knew right away you had it in you to play the Big Con. Stan, if you weren't already a scientist, I think you could make a great thief."

It was the nicest compliment Stan had ever been paid.

"And as for you, Captain Hoban ..." Julie continued.

"Yes, miss?" Hoban said.

"You're going to have to get that hangdog look off of your face. You're a spaceship captain again, not a washed up drunk who did something wrong once in his life and is making himself pay for it the rest of his life."

"I'll try to remember that," Hoban said.
Chapter 15
Morning came early to the federal penitentiary at Goose Lake, New York. Almost two thirds of the great gray concrete structure was underground, buried under one of the Catskills. What showed above was a windowless dome, gray as a ghost in sunlight, unrelievedly ugly despite the rows of quick growing trees that had been planted around its perimeter in an attempt to dress it up. A ten foot high electrified fence surrounded the facility, but it was pretty much window dressing. No convict had gotten as far as the fence yet. The prison had its ways of keeping the prisoners docile.

Within the windowless pile, artificial light shone night and day. It was part of standard policy to keep the prisoners disoriented, and therefore less aggressive.

Inside, there were the usual sections of prison cells, with catwalks outside them where the guards walked. There were workshops, food and laundry facilities, and a separate room where the inmates did state approved work and earned a dollar or so a day for it.

It was free time now. All the men not doing solitary were walking around the grounds, exercising, talking.

A loud voice came from the prison loudspeaker. "All men whose names are on the Alpha Volunteer list, report to the auditorium on the second level."

The Alpha Volunteer List contained the names of those prisoners with space experience who were willing to volunteer for a hazardous assignment in return for a reduction of their sentences. It had been a while since the call went out for crew. The prisoners were well aware of the good things this early release could do for them. And anyway, it was easier to escape from a spaceship than from a federal prison.

It was not easy getting on the Alpha list, because only a limited number were permitted even to apply. You had to bribe a guard to have any chance at all. And you were likely to have problems with other prisoners who wanted to take your place.

Red Badger had been waiting for this chance a long time. Now he got up, smoothed down his unruly red hair, checked his shoes, and started for the auditorium.

He was stopped by an inmate named Big Ed.

"Where do you think you're going?" Big Ed asked.

"I'm on the list," Badger said.

"You got it wrong," Big Ed said. "That last place is mine."

"No," Red insisted, "it's mine."

"Sure. But you're going to give it to me, aren't you?"

"No way," said Red Badger. "Now, if you'll just let me get past..."

Big Ed stood in the middle of the corridor, blocking Badger's way. "Do like I say," he threatened, "or else."

Red Badger knew he was being challenged, knew that Big Ed had been waiting for this moment a long time, yet he also knew that Big Ed had picked him figuring he was the easiest guy on the Alpha list to intimidate.

Badger already knew what he was going to do about it.

He was known as Red Badger because of his shock of coarse red hair. He had the light, easily sunburned skin that went with red hair, and narrow blue green eyes that blinked at you from behind sandy eyelashes. He was a big man, heavy in the chest. He wore his leather waistcoat open to show his chest with its grizzled mass of hair. He had large square teeth and a nasty smile.

Badger was an alumnus of many prisons. He had gotten his nickname at Raiford Prison in Florida, and as an act of defiance had taken it for his own. Badger was doing time for armed robbery and assault. He had a criminal record that went back a long way. Quick with his fists, he was also quick with