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The Commanding Officer frowned. "It may be quite a while. First I've got to find out who he is, where he's from. Then, if we're going that way, I intend to give him an unlogged lift. If we aren't -- well, I'll pass him along to a ship that is. Too complicated to explain, Pay -- but necessary."
"Okay. Then why not enlist him?"
"Huh?"
"It would clear up everything."
Brisby frowned. "I see. I could take him along legally . . . and arrange a transfer. And it would give you a charge number. But . . . well, suppose Shiva III is the spot -- and his enlistment is not up. Can't just tell him to desert. Besides I don't know that he wants to enlist."
"You can ask him. How old is he?"
"I doubt if he knows. He's a waif."
"So much the better. You ship him. Then when you find out where he has to go, you discover an error in his age . . . and correct it. It turns out that he reaches his majority in time to be paid off on his home planet."
Brisby blinked. "Pay, are all paymasters dishonest?"
"Only the good ones. You don't like it, sir?"
"I love it. Okay, I'll check. And I'll hold up that dispatch. We'll send it later."
The Paymaster looked innocent. "Oh, no, sir, we won't ever send it."
"How's that?"
"It won't be necessary. We enlist him to fill vacancy in complement We send in records to BuPersonnel. They make the routine check, name and home planet -- Hekate, I suppose, since we got him here
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