Dan Elliot sat in the muggy gloom of the Vestend Bar on the outskirts of Venus City, and grinned at his reflection in the mottled mirror. "Congratulations," he said to himself. "You are now the owner of the Space Needle II ." It had taken him five years, but it was worth it. The insurance money from the crashed Space Needle had just barely covered the down payment on the new ship, and it had taken five years to pay for the rest of it. But now—the ship was his. And he was celebrating. The only tr