med to be increasing.

He located the stairs, and after a quick but careful check, started up,
heart pounding, guns ready. On the second floor he glanced up and down
the hall, and jumped back into the stair well quickly. Firing from an
open window, three troopers were between him and the only door at the
end of the hall. Not sure if Roger was in that room or not, Tom had to
make sure by looking. And the only way he could do that was to eliminate
the men in his way. He dropped to one knee and took careful aim with the
ray pistol. It would be tricky at such long range, but should the
paralo-ray fail, the cadet was prepared to use the shock rifle. He
fired, and for a breathless second waited for the effects of the ray on
the troopers. Then he saw the men go rigid and he smiled. Three hundred
feet with a ray pistol was very fancy shooting!

He raced for the door. As he entered the room, he saw a figure stretched
out on the floor. He stopped still, cold fear clutching at his heart.

"Roger!" he called. The blond-haired cadet didn't move. Tom jumped to
his unit mate's side and dropped to one knee beside him. It was dark in
the room and he couldn't see very well, but there was no need for light
when he felt Roger's pulse.

"Frozen, by the stars!" he exclaimed. He stepped back, flipped the
neutralizer switch on his ray gun, and fired a short burst. Almost
immediately Roger groaned, blinked his eyes, and sat up.

"Roger! Are you all right?" asked Tom.

"Yeah--sure. I'm O.K.," mumbled his unit mate. "Those dirty space rats.
They didn't know what to do with me when the Marines landed, so they
froze me. They were scared to kill me. Afraid of reprisals."

"They sure used their heads that time," said Tom with a grin. "How's
your back?"

"Fine. I just wrenched it a little. It's better now. But never mind me.
What's going on? Where's Astro and Major Connel? And how did you get
here?"

Tom gave him a quick run-down on everything that had happened,
concluding with, "Major Connel and Astro, with a patrol of Solar Guard
Marines, are outside now drawing the Nationalist fire. Time's running
out on us fast. Think you can walk?"

"Spaceboy," replied Roger, "to get out of this place I'd crawl on my
hands and knees!"

"Then come on!" Tom gave the shock rifle to his unit mate and stepped
back into the hall. It was quiet. Tom waved at Roger to follow and
slipped down the hall toward the stairs. Outside, the Marine patrol
continued fi