he X-ray room had saved him from the blast of
radiation that had cut down the crew in the rear of the ship. He'd come
to in time to see the Rat cruisers cut up the lifeboats before they
could get well away from the ship. They'd taken a couple of parting
shots at the dead hulk, and then left it to drift in space--and leaving
one man alive.

In the small section near the rear of the ship, there were still
compartments that were airtight. At least, Pendray decided, there was
enough air to keep him alive for a while. If only he could get a little
power into the ship, he could get the rear air purifiers to working.

He left the lifeboat and closed the door behind him. There was no point
in worrying about a boat he couldn't use.

He made his way back toward the engine room. Maybe there was something
salvageable there. Swimming through the corridors was becoming easier
with practice; his Cadet training was coming back to him.

Then he got a shock that almost made him faint. The beam of his light
had fallen full on the face of a Rat. It took him several seconds to
realize that the Rat was dead, and several more to realize that it
wasn't a Rat at all. It was the spy they had been sent to pick up. He'd
been in the sick bay for treatments of the ulcers on his back gained
from five years of frequent lashings as a Rat slave.

Pendray went closer and looked him over. He was still wearing the
clothing he'd had on when the _Shane_ picked him up.

_Poor guy_, Pendray thought. _All that hell--for nothing._

Then he went around the corpse and continued toward the engine room.

The place was still hot, but it was thermal heat, not radioactivity. A
dead atomic engine doesn't leave any residual effects.

Five out of the six engines were utterly ruined, but the sixth seemed
to be in working condition. Even the shielding was intact. Again, hope
rose in Alfred Pendray's mind. If only there were tools!

A half hour's search killed that idea. There were no tools aboard
capable of cutting through the hard shielding. He couldn't use it to
shield the engine on the lifeboat. And the shielding that been on the
other five engines had melted and run; it was worthless.

Then another idea hit him. Would the remaining engine work at all? Could
it be fixed? It was the only hope he had left.

Apparently, the only thing wrong with it was the exciter circuit leads,
which had been sheared off by a bit of flying metal. The engine had
simply stopped