before we decideanything else, I say let's decide here and now that the _only_ thing wewill do is go back to Earth."
One of the most grotesquely deformed of the crew spoke up. "No womanwould ever look at me," he said defiantly. "Children would stare at meand scream in terror. I've suffered enough. Why should I suffer more?"
The woman in the fine fur got to her feet and walked over to him. Shesat down beside him and took his hand in hers. "I will look at you," shesaid. "When we get back to Earth, I will marry you and live with you--ifyou are brave enough to take me there."
For an instant the crewman stared at her out of his horribly bulgingpopeyes, then he swallowed hard and clutched her hand fiercely.
"The Devil himself will not keep me from it!" he said hoarsely.
Gene, staring at the man, felt a warm hand slip into his, and he turnedto find Ann.
"I think that answers for all of us," she said.
The room rang with the shouts of approval.
Once more Gene began talking. "All right, then, I've a plan. First,we'll try to find out how to maneuver this craft. I believe we canpersuade one of the Mates to show us the controls without much trouble."
"Yah!" interrupted Schwenky. "They show!"
"We'll set a course for Earth by the sun. We'll come in with the sun atour back, which means we'll have to make a wide circle off the traveledspacelanes, through unknown space, and come in from the direction of theinner planets, which are uninhabited and unvisited. Also, with the sunbehind us, we won't be observed from Earth. Then, with all our speed,we'll come in, land at high noon in Chicago, right in front of theoffices of the _Sentinel_, the newspaper for which I work."
There was a chorus of exclamations. Ann looked at him in amazement."You, a newspaperman!" she gasped.
"Yes. I was sent out by my boss to find out what was behind the secrecyof the space ships. I got shanghaied as a crew member. Now, with yourhelp, maybe I can complete my assignment. Once we get to my boss, theshow will be over. He'll blast the story wide open."
"Wonderful!" shouted Maher. "Come, Schwenky! We will get Perkins andmake him show us how to run the ship!"
Schwenky chortled in glee. "Yah! We get. By golly, I know that GeneO'Neill is good man! Maybe I get my picture in newspaper?"
Maher stared at him. "God forbid!" he said. "Unless it's in the comicsection!"
"Yah!" agreed Schwenky. "In comic section!"
* * * * *
Two weeks later, as the ship crossed Earth's orbit and headed in behindthe planet in the plane of the sun, the meteorite hit. It tore a greathole in the passenger side of the ship, and knocked out the port jets.
The ship veered crazily under the influence of its lopsided blast, andthe crew was hurled against the wall and pinned there as the continuinginvoluntary maneuver built up acceleration.
Gene, who had been in his bunk, was pressed against the wall by a gianthand. Savagely he fought to adjust himself into a more bearableposition, then tried to figure out what had happened. Obviously the shipwas veering about, out of control.
"Meteorite!" he gasped. "We've been hit."
He pulled himself from the bunk, slid along the wall to the door. It wasall he could do to open it, but once in the companionway outside, hefound that he could crawl along one wall, off the floor, in an inchingprogress. He made it finally to the control room, and forced his bodyaround the door jamb and inside. Against the far wall Maher wasplastered, dazed, but conscious. At his feet lay Heinie, his headcrushed, obviously dead.
"Cut off the rest of the jets!" gasped Maher. "I can't make it!"
Gene crawled slowly around the room, following the wall, until he couldreach the controls, then he pulled the lever that controlled the jetblast. The ship's unnatural veering stopped instantly and both Maher andGene dropped heavily to the floor.
Gene was up first and helped Maher to his feet. Together they turned tothe indicators.
"Passenger deck's out!" said Maher. "Except for a few compartments. Theautomatic seals have operated. But there must be somebody left alive inthem."
"We've got to get them," said Gene. "But first, we've got to check up onwhat damage has been done here, and how many casualties we have."
"Heinie's dead," said Maher. "He hit the wall with his head."
Gene shuddered, and deep in his stomach nausea churned. He thought ofAnn and his blood froze in his veins. "You take below decks, I'll goup," he said. Ann's cabin was on the deck above.
Maher nodded and staggered away. Gene scrambled up the stairwell as fastas he could, and ran down the corridor. At Ann's door he stopped, turnedthe knob. The door opened. The room was empty.
Suddenly he heard running footsteps, and Ann threw herself into hisarms, sobbing.
"Where were you?" he asked, almost savagely.
"I went to your cabin, to see if you were hurt. What happened to theship?"
"Meteorite hit us. Knocked out the passenger deck. Most of thepassengers will be dead, but we've got to go in and rescue thesurvivors."
Doors were opening here and there and the crew members able to make itwere congregating around them. They went to the recreation room. ThereGene counted noses. Five crewmen were missing. Of those present, six menwere injured, and one woman exhibited a black eye, accentuating herother abnormalities. The three prisoners were reported unharmed.
"What about the missing men?" Gene asked.
"Three dead," Maher replied, "two badly hurt. We'll need somebody tolook after them."
"I'll go," volunteered Ann. The woman in fur stepped forward also, andthey left the room behind Maher and Schwenky.
Gene faced the rest. "We've got a real problem now. With a reduced crew,we'll have to finish a trip that would have been tough with an uninjuredship. But first, we've got to search the passenger deck and remove thesurvivors. All of you who are able, put on pressure suits and come withme."
He led the way to the locker containing the pressure suits. Seven men,those who were not too deformed to don the suits, made up the party.Gene led the way to the Captain's stateroom, ordered the door sealedbehind them, then opened the only door to the damaged deck. The airrushed out as the door swung open, and suddenly complete silencedescended upon them. There would be no more communication between themexcept for signs.
In an hour they had determined the truth. All passengers but one, awoman, had been killed instantly. The woman was unconscious, butsuffering only from bruises. It had been necessary, after discoveringher unpierced cabin, to return to the deck above and cut through with atorch.
When she regained consciousness and saw her rescuers, she screamed.
"That'll give us some idea of how the people back on Earth will receiveus," said Gene. "If we get there, that is."
Later, in the control room, Maher and MacNamara gave their report.
"We can make it," said MacNamara, "but we'll come in limping like awounded moose. If any of the Company ships sight us, we'll be a sittingduck. But maybe it will be better that way. This is like war, and someof us must die...." His voice trailed off in a mumble.
"Some of us _are_ dying," said Maher. "But he's right, Gene; we can makeit, with luck. We'll not be able to come in fast, nor land in the city,but we'll make it to Earth."
"That's enough," decided Gene. "If we can land near Chicago, I think Ican manage the rest."
They turned to the controls, and MacNamara went back to his pile room.Once more the ship limped on, this time directly toward the ball ofEarth, looming a scant twenty million miles away.
* * * * *
It took eight days to come within a million miles of their goal. Thentragedy struck again. The cabin on the passenger deck from which theyhad removed the sole survivor blew its door, and the air on the deckabove rushed out through the hole they had burned into the cabin. It hadbeen forgotten, and it meant the lives of three more crew members.
Then, as they prepared to bring the ship into the atmosphere, Maher,peering through the
telescope, let out a shout. "Company ship, coming upfast! They're after us!"
Gene leaped to the telescope and peered through. Far to the left, aglowing silver streak in the sky, was the familiar shape of a spaceship, growing larger by the minute. Studying it, Gene saw that it was anarmed cruiser.
"They've got wise," said Maher. "I thought they would, when we didn'tcheck in at Io. Probably radioed back to be on the lookout for us."
"Call MacNamara," said Gene. "We've got to see if he can set us downfaster. Maybe there's some way