all the reserves on the oxygen bottles by refilling
the empties he found on the ship and making sure that all space suits
were in perfect working order. Then he opened the emergency surgical kit
and began the laborious task of examining every vial and drug in the kit
to acquaint himself with what there was to work with just in case. He
brought all the stores of jelly out for radiation burns and finally
opened a bottle of special sterilization liquid with which to wipe all
the instruments and vials clean. He checked the contents of the kit once
more, and, satisfied that everything was as ready as he could make it,
he went up to the control deck.

"Any other message from them yet, sir?" asked Tom.

"Nothing yet," answered Strong. "If I could pick them up on the
teleceiver, maybe they could tell us what the trouble is and then we
could more or less be prepared to help them." He bent over the
teleceiver screen and added grimly, "If there is anything left to help!"

"Radar deck to control deck!" Roger's voice was tense. "I think I've
picked them up on the radar scanner, Captain Strong!"

"Relay it down here to control-deck scanner, Manning," ordered Strong.

"Ummmh!" murmured the captain when the screen began to glow. "I'm pretty
sure that's her. Here's that assumed position Roger worked up, Tom.
Check it against this one here on the scanner."

Tom quickly computed the position of the object on the scanner and
compared it to the position Roger had given them previously.

"If Roger's positioning was correct, sir," said Tom, "then that's the
_Lady Venus_. They both check out perfectly!"

Strong, bent over the radar scanner, didn't answer. Finally he turned
around and flipped off the scanner. "That's her," he announced.
"Congratulations, Roger. You hit it right on the nose!"

"How shall we approach her, sir?" asked Tom.

"We'd better wait until she sends up her flares."

"You mean the identification flares for safety factors?"

"That's right," replied Strong. "A white flare means it's all right to
come alongside and couple air locks. A red one means to stand off and
wait for instructions." Strong turned to the intercom.

"Control deck to power deck. Reduce thrust to one quarter space speed!"

"Power deck, aye," answered Astro.

"We'll wait until we're about two miles away from her and then use our
braking jets in the bow of the ship to bring us within a few thousand
feet of her," commented Strong.

"Yes, sir,"