region failed to turn him up
again. The guard was upset; Tawney was a great deal more upset, because
at the time Greg Hunter was (reportedly) playing havoc with the
yeast-vats in Hydroponics he was also (reportedly) knocking guards down
like ten-pins in the main corridor off the engine room while
reinforcements tried to pin him down with a wide-beam stunner....

Quite suddenly emergency circuits closed and lights flashed in the
control cabin, the special signal for a meteor-collision with the outer
shell in No. 3 hold. Tawney signalled for the section chief frantically.
"What's happening down there?"

"I can't talk," the section chief gasped. "Gotta get into a suit, we're
leaking in here...."

"Well, plug up the hole!"

"The hole's four feet wide, sir!" There was a fit of coughing and the
contact broke. The signals for No. 4 hold and No. 5 hold were flashing
now; while the crew members in the vicinity scrambled for pressure suits
someone systematically proceeded to blow holes in No. 9, No. 10 and No.
11 holds....

It was impossible. The reports came in thick and fast. Greg Hunter
was in two places at once, and everywhere he went ... in both
places ... there was a trail of unbelievable destruction. Bulkheads
demolished, gaping holes torn in the outer shell, the air-reconditioning
units smashed beyond repair.... Tawney buzzed for his first mate.

An emergency switch cut into the line, with the frantic voice of a
section chief. Johnny Coombs had been spotted disappearing into the
ventilator shaft in the engine sector. "Well, go in after him!" Tawney
screamed. He got his first mate finally, and snarled orders into the
speaker. "They're in the ventilators. Get a crew in there and stop
them."

But it was dark in the ventilator shafts. No emergency lights in there.
Worse, the crewmen were hearing the things that were being whispered
around the ship. The ventilator shafts yawned menacingly before them;
they went in reluctantly. Once in the dark maze of tunnels,
identification was difficult. Two guards met each other headlong in the
darkness, and put each other out of the fight in a flurry of nervous
stunner-fire. While they searched more of the holds were broken open,
leaking air through gaping rents in the hull....

Tawney felt the panic spreading; he tried to curb it, and it spread in
spite of him. The fugitives were appearing and disappearing like
wraiths. Reports back to control cabin took on a frantic note, confu