no one
could possibly think an ordinary spaceship suffered an ordinary crash,
and very little investigation would show up the truth.

I reach up with the forward set of "limbs" and grapple on to the
break. I now have somehow to get the hind set of "limbs" up without
losing my grip. I can't.

It takes several minutes to realize that I can just open the nose and
crawl out.

Immediately a wave hits me in the face and does its best to drag me
into the sea. However the interior of the ship is relatively sheltered
and presently I am inside and dragging the boat up out of reach.

I need light. Presently I manage to detach one of the two from the
boat. I turn it down to minimum close beam and hang it round my neck;
then I start up the black jag-edged tunnel of the ship.

I have to get to the nose, find the fuse, change the setting to twenty
minutes--maximum possible--and get out before it blows--out of the
water I mean. The fish-boat is not constructed to take explosions even
half a mile away. But the first thing is to find the fuse and I cannot
make out how _Gilgamesh_ is lying and therefore cannot find the door
through this bulkhead; everything is ripped and twisted. In the end I
find a gap between the bulkhead itself and the hull, and squeeze
through that.

In the next compartment things are more recognizable and I eventually
find the door. Fortunately ships are designed so that you can get
through doors even when they are in the ceiling; actually here I have
to climb up an overhang, but the surface is provided with rungs which
make it not too bad. Finally I reach the door. I shall have to use
antigrav to get down ... why didn't I just turn it on and jump? I
forgot I had it.

The door was a little way open when the missile struck; it buckled in
its grooves and is jammed fast. I can get an arm through. No more. I
switch on antigrav and hang there directing the light round the
compartment. No rents anywhere, just buckling. This compartment is
divided by a partition and the door through that is open. There will
be another door into the nose on the other side.

I bring back my feet ready to kick off on a dive through that doorway.

Behind me, something stirs.

* * * * *

My muscles go into a spasm like the one that causes a falling dream,
my hold tears loose and I go tumbling through the air, rebound from a
wall, twist, and manage to hook one foot in the frame of the door I
was aimin