longer face her. "Yes, there were monsters."

He pivoted; stuffed more clothing into the air vent. "All hands took off in carriers. Now the ship's crashed--on Hyperion, maybe; someplace with an ammonia-and-methane atmosphere, anyhow. The plates must have sprung when we hit. The smudge outside is leaking in."

"Then--what--?"

Boone finished with the vent. Sliding down to the bunk, he tore open the mekronal case with unsteady fingers; drew out an ampule.

"We'll try it on mekronal," he answered in a voice gone flat in spite of him. "If we can last three hours till it takes effect, we still may make it."

He readied the injector and sprayed the ampule's contents into Eileen's bloodstream, then shot a second into his own.

The girl's hand touched his; held it. "I'm ... so tired...." Her eyes closed.

She slept.

Seconds dragging by, melding into minutes. The cabin growing uncomfortably warm, the air stale and stuffy.

A half-hour gone. Time for another ampule.

Again and again, Boone read the legend on the carton: _Mekronal is an unanalyzed catalyst derived from the skeletal structure of the non-carbon chemistry life-form_ Helgae _found on Titan. When injected into the human bloodstream, it enables man to breathe all known atmospheres, regardless of content, without toxic effect. Dosage: One ampule every thirty minutes till three ampules have been injected. Repeat weekly until return to normal oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere. Takes effect within approximately three hours after first injection though an additional one-hour safety factor is recommended_.

"Takes effect within approximately three hours after first injection...."

Three endless hours.

Or the other line--"Enables man to breathe all known atmospheres, regardless of content, without toxic effect."

Did that include carbon dioxide atmospheres like the one now forming in this cabin?

Bleakly, Boone wondered. He checked his chronox.

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