“Captain Vlazil was unwilling to risk starting a panic, sir,” the Air Force officer replied. “Really, I’m exceeding my orders in mentioning it to you, but I thought you should know. …”
Kalvar Dard swore. “It’s a blasted pity Captain Vlazil didn’t try thinking! Gold-braided quarter-wit! Maybe his crew might panic, but my people wouldn’t. … I’m going to call the control-room and have it out with him. By the Ten Gods. … !”
He ran through the airlock and back into the hold, starting toward the intercom-phone beside the desk. Before he could reach it, there was another heavy jar, rocking the entire ship. He, and Seldar Glav, who had followed him out of the boat-bay, and the six girls, who had risen on hearing their commander’s angry voice, were all tumbled into a heap. Dard surged to his feet, dragging Kyna up along with him; together, they helped the others to rise. The ship was suddenly filled with jangling bells, and the red danger-lights on the ceiling were flashing on and off.
“Attention! Attention!” the voice of some officer in the control-room blared out of the intercom-speaker. “The ship has just been hit by a large meteor! All compartments between bulkheads Twelve and Thirteen are sealed off. All persons between bulkheads Twelve and Thirteen, put on oxygen helmets and plug in at the nearest phone connection. Your air is leaking, and you can’t get out, but if you put on oxygen equipment immediately, you’ll be all right. We’ll get you out as soon as we can, and in any case, we are only a few hours out of Tareeshan atmosphere. All persons in Compartment Twelve, put on. …”
Kalvar Dard was swearing evilly. “That does it! That does it for good. … Anybody else in this compartment, below the living quarter level?”
“No, we’re the only ones,” Analea told him.
“The people above have their own boats; they can look after themselves. You girls, get in that boat, in there. Glav, you and I’ll try to warn the people above. …”
There was another jar, heavier than the one which had preceded it, throwing them all down again. As they rose, a new voice was shouting over the public-address system:
“Abandon ship! Abandon ship! The converters are backfiring, and rocket-fuel is leaking back toward the engine-rooms! An explosion is imminent! Abandon ship, all hands!”
Kalvar Dard and Seldar Glav grabbed the girls and literally threw them through the hatch, into the rocket-boat. Dard pushed Glav in ahead of him, then jumped in. Before he had picked himself up, two or three of the girls were at the hatch, dogging the cover down.
“All right, Glav, blast off!” Dard ordered. “We’ve got to be at least a hundred miles from this ship when she blows, or we’ll blow with her!”
“Don’t I know!” Seldar Glav retorted over his shoulder, racing for the controls. “Grab hold of something, everybody; I’m going to fire all jets at once!”
An instant later, while Kalvar Dard and the girls clung to stanchions and pieces of fixed furniture, the boat shot forward out of its housing. When Dard’s head had cleared, it was in free flight.
“How was that?” Glav yelled. “Everybody all right?” He hesitated for a moment. “I think I blacked out for about ten seconds.”
Kalvar Dard looked the girls over. Eldra was using a corner of her smock to stanch a nosebleed, and Olva had a bruise over one eye. Otherwise, everybody was in good shape.
“Wonder we didn’t all black out, permanently,” he said. “Well, put on the visiscreens, and let’s see what’s going on outside. Olva, get on the radio and try to see if anybody else got away.”
“Set course for Tareesh?” Glav asked. “We haven’t fuel enough to make it back to Doorsha.”
“I was afraid of that,” Dard nodded. “Tareesh it is; northern hemisphere, daylight side. Try to get about the edge of the temperate zone, as near water as you can. …”
II
They were flung off their feet again, this time backward along the boat. As they picked themselves up, Seldar Glav was shaking his head, sadly. “That was the ship going up,” he said; “the blast must have caught us dead astern.”
“All right.” Kalvar Dard rubbed a bruised forehead. “Set course for Tareesh, then cut out the jets till we’re ready to land. And get the screens on, somebody; I want to see what’s happened.”
The screens glowed; then full vision came on. The planet on which they would land loomed huge before them, its north pole toward them, and its single satellite on the port side. There was no sign of any rocket-boat in either side screen, and the rear-view screen was a blur of yellow flame from the jets.
“Cut the jets, Glav,” Dard repeated. “Didn’t you hear me?”
“But I did, sir!” Seldar Glav indicated the firing-panel. Then he glanced at the rear-view screen. “The gods help us! It’s yellow flame; the jets are burning out!”
Kalvar Dard had not boasted idly when he had said that his people would not panic. All the girls went white, and one or two gave low cries of consternation, but that was all.
“What happens next?” Analea wanted to know. “Do we blow, too?”
“Yes, as soon as the fuel-line burns up to the tanks.”
“Can you land on Tareesh before then?” Dard asked.
“I can try. How about the satellite? It’s closer.”
“It’s also airless. Look at it and see for yourself,” Kalvar Dard advised. “Not enough mass to hold an atmosphere.”
Glav looked at the army officer with new respect. He had always been inclined to think of the Frontier Guards as a gang of scientifically illiterate dirk-and-pistol bravos. He fiddled for a while with instruments on the panel; an automatic computer figured the distance to the planet, the boat’s velocity, and the time needed for a landing.
“We have a chance, sir,” he said. “I think I can set down in about thirty minutes; that should give us about ten minutes to get clear of the boat, before she blows up.”
“All right; get busy, girls,” Kalvar
