There were fifty men in the Gordak\'s crew and another thirty-odd in the expedition, and a space ship being the complicated, labyrinthine device that it is, it wasn\'t too strange that Steve failed to encounter LeClarc until immediately before landing on Mercury. Then the Gordak\'s deceleration tubes had cut in and Steve found the most readily available accel-hammock in the general lounge. The Frenchman was stretched out on the cushions three feet from him.