ds they
remained motionless and silent, grimly surveying their awesome
surroundings. The billions of stars above were terrifyingly vivid
against the dark emptiness of space. The ship's hull was fantastically
twisted and pitted, and the enemy ship--it hovered a few miles
distant--had been transformed into a brilliantly burning star by the
reflected sunlight.

"We've got to find cover," George said quickly. "If they're watching the
ship with telescopes we'll stand out like fireflies in a dark room!"

Cautiously sliding their feet across the hull, Gloria and Emmett
followed the pilot. Presently he pointed to a spot where a large section
of the hull had been twisted back upon itself, forming a deep pocket.
"This should be good enough," he said.

They followed his example as he knelt and crawled through the small
opening. To Emmett it was like crawling into a sardine can. The space
was barely large enough to accommodate the three of them, and through
the spacesuit's tough fabric, he could feel faint, shifting pressures
that indicated he was leaning against someone's back and sitting on
someone's legs. They shuffled about in the total darkness until they
reached a fairly comfortable position and then crouched in silence until
light flashed all about them.

"Look!" Gloria whispered. Emmett stared through a narrow gash in the
metal near his head and saw a group of Agronians approaching the ship.
The starlight, glittering on their strange spacesuits, transformed them
into weird apparitions.

Emmett closed his eyes and breathed a silent prayer. When he opened them
again he could see only the unwinking stars and the enemy ship, which
was still hovering nearby like a huge glaring eye.

"They're inside the ship analyzing our navigational instruments," George
said as if he could somehow see through the solid metal. "They're a very
thorough race. They probably know far more about us than we know about
them."

"What are we going to do?" Gloria asked. "We can't just sit here until
breathing becomes a torment--"

"What _can_ we do? There's no place to go!" Emmett's heart had begun a
furious pounding. His plight reminded him of how, in a recurrent
nightmare, he had often found himself standing frozen before an oncoming
truck, his legs immobile as he waited for death. He had always awakened
with his heart beating furiously and his body bathed in a cold sweat,
his mind filled with a sickening fear.

And now it was as if the nigh