When Sandy Strathearn joined her new starship, the "Thessalia", she was immediately told to report to the armoury. Armoury? "Thessalia" was a civilian 'ship and Sandy was an engineer. What did she want in any armoury? The armourer handed her a datapad: "Please sign, or use the palm-receptor." Once Sandy had done so, he opened the large case behind him. The lefthand side was full of identical handguns, the right full of datapads. He took out one of each. The datapad was pretty much similar to the kind Sandy was used to, except that it had an additional proximity-screen. "Ever used one?" He wasn't asking about the datapad. "Never even held one," confessed Sandy. "Why do I need a gun?" "It's a Vaporiser, just like the SpaceMarines use. This is the safety. It should always be on, when you're in the upper hull, and always off, as soon as you enter the lower hull. Don't worry: there are safety circuits, to stop you disintegrating yourself. This is the dial. It's set to 'vaporise' now and that's the way you want it, permanently. If it's on this starship and isn't human, it's toast - got it? That's the trigger and that's where the ray comes out of. You probably knew that. Really, that's all you need to know. You can practise in the range, just over there, at any time. The distances in the lower hull aren't great. Concentrate on practising your reaction times. And remember: we have plenty of spare datapads." "And plenty of spare rayguns," Sandy pointed out. "Yeah, but... Well, you'll see." "But why do I need a gun?" Sandy persisted. "Didn't you ask them why it was only a one-voyage-contract?" "No..." The armourer took a deep breath and looked at Sandy with a very sincere expression. "Well, it's a dangerous job. Now listen: we haven't lost an engineer yet, but you need to be prepared. This old crate has been all over the place and somewhere she picked up some self-replicating lifeform in the lower hull and it's not friendly. The upper hull is clean, since they can't use the transmission tube. You engineers, obviously, are the only ones who need to go below, so you need to be properly equipped: all this is at your disposal." He waved his arm around the armoury. "The proximity sensors in the datapad do a good job and so does the Vaporiser. Practise and you'll be fine. Now, if you'd like to step into the bodyscanner cubicle there, we can fit you up for your armoursuit." Sandy was on her fifth trip "below", before she met her first alien. The proximity sensor in her datapad began to bleep like crazy and she was instantly very glad for the hours she had put in on the range. As the armourer had said, it wasn't accuracy that mattered, so much as speed. She looked down at the various components of her datapad, scattered around her on the unyielding metal floor, and suddenly understood why the "Thessalia" carried so many. "As long as they have enough to get me to the next starport," she said aloud, as she carefully edged her way back to the transmission-tube.