make out two shadowy
figures moving hesitantly about the wreckage.

He remained motionless as one of the two men approached him, reached out
and adjusted the dials on his spacesuit controls. The earphones in his
helmet blared with a familiar voice, "Are you all right?"

"Y-Yeah. Just a little shaken."

The man walked toward the third passenger and presently Emmett heard a
quick, sobbing breath through the earphones.

"Are you hurt?" the man asked.

"No." Even under the abnormal conditions Gloria White's calm voice came
through clearly.

They wandered aimlessly about the room, each engrossed in his private
mental turmoil. Finally the pilot broke the silence, "Since we're
probably the last ones alive on the ship, we should know each other. My
name is George Hartman."

"Emmett Corbin."

"Gloria ... Gloria White."

The pilot said with grim urgency: "We've got to do something. There's no
sense in just standing here--waiting for the enemy to come."

"Come?" Emmett inquired. "You mean that the Agronians will actually
board our ship?"

"They always examine disabled ships. They are determined to learn as
much as they can about us."

"Well, let's get some weapons and be ready. I'm no hero, understand. But
I agree with you that there's no sense in just waiting."

The pilot said: "There are no hand weapons on the ship. Our only
possible course of action would be to _hide_." His emphasis conveyed to
the others how much he disliked the thought.

"But where?" Gloria asked. "If they make a thorough search--"

"We can't hide _in_ the ship," George said, with absolute conviction.
"Our reports indicate that they examine every square foot inside a
bombed vessel. We'll have to conceal ourselves outside."

"_Outside?_"

"We can use the magnetic shoes on our spacesuits to walk on the ship's
hull. If luck favors us they may never even think of searching the
forward section of the hull."

Emmett shrugged his shoulders, not realizing that in the faint light no
one could see the gesture. Gloria said, "It's better than making no
attempt at all to save ourselves."

George led the way from the control room, and across a passenger
compartment that was filled with the crumpled, lifeless forms of almost
a hundred men and women.

"There were no spacesuits in this room," he explained simply.

They operated the air lock by utilizing the emergency manual controls,
and were soon standing on the hull of the ship. For several secon