led with the hatch.

* * * * *

Ackerman Boone whirled suddenly. He had been intent upon the
companionway door and the sounds behind him--which he had heard but not
registered as dangerous for several seconds--now made him turn.

The man was peeling off a space suit. Literally peeling it off in strips
from his lobster-red flesh. He blinked at Boone without seeing him.
Dazzle-blinded, Boone thought, then realized his own vision was going.

"I'll kill you if you go near that subspace drive!" Boone screamed.

"It's the only chance for all of us and you know it, Boone," the man
said quietly. "Don't try to stop me."

Ackerman Boone lifted his N-gun and squinted through the haze of heat
and blinding light. He couldn't see! He couldn't see....

Wildly, he fired the N-gun. Wildly, in all directions, spraying the room
with it--

Larry dropped blindly forward. Twice he tripped over unconscious men,
but climbed to his feet and went on. He could not see Boone, but he
could see--vaguely--the muzzle flash of Boone's N-gun. He staggered
across the room toward that muzzle-flash and finally embraced it--

And found himself fighting for his life. Boone was crazed now--with the
heat and with his own failure. He bit and tore at Larry with strong
claw-like fingers and lashed out with his feet. He balled his fists and
hammered air like a windmill, arms flailing, striking flesh often enough
to batter Larry toward the floor.

Grimly Larry clung to him, pulled himself upright, ducked his head
against his chest and struck out with his own fists, feeling nothing,
not knowing when they landed and when they did not, hearing nothing but
a far off roaring in his ears, a roaring which told him he was losing
consciousness and had to act--soon--if he was going to save anyone....

He stood and pounded with his fists.

Pounded--air.

He did not know that Boone had collapsed until his feet trod on the
man's inert body and then, quickly, he rushed toward the control board,
rushed blindly in its direction, or in the direction he thought it would
be, tripped over something, sprawled on the hot, blistering floor, got
himself up somehow, crawled forward, pulled himself upright....

There was no sensation in his fingers. He did not know if he had
actually reached the control board but abruptly he realized that he had
not felt Mayhem's presence in his mind for several minutes. Was Mayhem
conserving his energy for a f