fuel. It should fire without an atmosphere around it.

There were some figures stamped on the barrel: "COLT 1985, Cal-.45, MV-1100, Ser-45617298." Kraag puzzled over them. He knew the first one was the make and year and the last undoubtedly was the serial number. He deduced that "MV-1100" probably was a figure showing the relationship between the projectile's mass and velocity. But it had been a long time since projectile weapons were common.

He called on the memory of a demonstration of the weapon Jonner had given his companions once on Mars. There was something that had to be done to prepare it for firing. Holding it in his right hand, Kraag grasped the barrel with his left. After a moment of hesitant tugging, he hit the right movement and the whole outer casing of the barrel slid backward and clicked. It snapped back into position as Kraag released it, and he remembered.

The gun was primed now. All he had to do was press the trigger and it would fire. It would automatically prime itself again after firing. It would fire each time he pressed the trigger now, until it exhausted its projectiles.

Exultant, he laid it carefully in a contour chair, where it wouldn't slide out. He put his helmet back on and replaced the hand-hooks of his spacesuit.

He looked out several ports before he found Jonner. The captain was not more than 150 feet away, casually lobbing rocks at the sphere.

Kraag picked up Jonner's pistol and made his way down to the airlock. He emerged and walked around the sphere to the side where he had located Jonner.

Jonner was moving away now, though he couldn't have known Kraag was coming out. He was about 300 feet away—too far for a heat-gun, but certainly within range of the projectile weapon. He seemed to be headed toward one of the big fuel tanks.

Kraag levelled the pistol toward Jonner and pulled the trigger. To his astonishment, he was hurtled backward, heels over head.

The kick of a .45 on an asteroid is pretty powerful. Kraag must have bounced 50 feet backward over the terrain before he slid to rest on his stomach. But he held on to the pistol—and, since he never had a chance to release the pressure of his hand-hook on the trigger, it did not fire again.

When he struggled upright, Jonner was standing at the edge of the fuel tank, watching him.

 Prev. P 10/23 next