h-gee field had given me; without
that I would have collapsed before now; but I was almost ready to drop.
I had my eyes fixed on the lift door; each step, inch by inch, was an
almost unbearable effort. With only a few feet to go, my knees gave; I
went down on all fours. Another batch of needles sang around me, and
vivid pain seared my left arm. It helped. The pain cleared my head,
spurred me. I rose and stumbled against the door.

Now the combination. I fought a numbing desire to faint as I pressed the
lock control; three, five, two, five ...

I twisted around as I heard a sound. The shuttle was coming toward me,
men lying flat on it, protected by the bumper plate. I leaned against
the lift door, and loosed a stream of needles against the side of the
corridor, banking them toward the shuttle. Two men rolled off the
shuttle in a spatter of blood. Another screamed, and a hand waved above
the bumper. I needled it.

* * * * *

I wondered how many were on the shuttle. It kept coming. The closer it
came, the more effective my bank shots were. I wondered why it failed to
return my fire. Then a hand rose in an arc and a choke bomb dropped in a
short curve to the floor. It rolled to my feet, just starting to spew. I
kicked it back. The shuttle stopped, backed away from the bomb. A jet of
brown gas was playing from it now. I aimed my needler, and sent it
spinning back farther. Then I turned to my lock.

Now a clank of metal against metal sounded behind me; from the side
passage a figure in radiation armor moved out. The suit was self-powered
and needle proof. I sent a concentrated blast at the head, as the figure
awkwardly tottered toward me, ungainly in the multi-gee field. The
needles hit, snapped the head back. The suited figure hesitated, arms
spread, stepped back and fell with a thunderous crash. I had managed to
knock him off balance, maybe stun him.

I struggled to remember where I was in the code sequence; I went on,
keyed the rest. I pushed; nothing. I must have lost count. I started
again.

I heard the armored man coming on again. The needler trick wouldn't work
twice. I kept working. I had almost completed the sequence when I felt
the powered grip of the suited man on my arm. I twisted, jammed the
needler against his hand, and fired. The arm flew back, and even through
the suit I heard his wrist snap. My own hand was numb from the recoil.
The other arm of the suit swept down and s