Outside Saturn
swore in the growing junk heap.

"We're deceleratin'!" Aziz yelled. "That old man really is gonna kill us! We'll crash on Saturn!"

"That hatch over the bunk!" Vicenzo said as he tried to stand. "That's where they went! The control room!" A box of cans emptied over his helmet.

"We're fallin'!" Aziz yelled. "It's forcin' us to the front of the station! Let's get out!" He stumbled through the litter toward the airvalve which was now up one wall.

Vicenzo said, "Look out that window! The stars are streaking! He's just spinning the sweeper! It's centrifugal force!"

"It's deceleration!" Aziz insisted, jumping at the airvalve. The dismantled teletype slipped from its clamps and fell on the man's head. He slid back down the wall.

Beside Henry, the net broke loose. A slow, miscellaneous rain, including two sandwich bunks and part of a spaceship landing leg, fell on Vicenzo and Aziz. Henry felt the desk slipping. He dropped on his feet in the clutter. The desk clattered down beside him.

Stumbling and staggering, Henry reached Vicenzo, who struggled under a bunk, a plastic packing case, part of a pump, and a bundle of tubing. Henry took the electric cable from his belt and formed a loop. He drew the loop tight around Vicenzo's arms. Vicenzo pushed the case off his legs and tried to stand. Henry flipped the cable around and around Vicenzo and bound his arms to his sides.

"Get him, Aziz!" Vicenzo called in rage. Henry tied Vicenzo's feet together and cut off the remaining cable with his snips.

Aziz had grasped the frame of the airvalve and was trying to slide the door open. Henry selected a battered oxygen tank from the heap, lifted it in both hands, and hurled it. The missile caught Aziz across the back of his spacesuit. He fell into the jumbled equipment on the floor. Quickly, Henry repeated his looping and tying operations. Then he sat on an empty trunk and tried to slow his rapid breathing.

"Le'me go, Henry!" Aziz demanded, somewhat dazed. "We're fallin'!" Henry opened the switch on the spacesuit's loudspeaker.

The bunk in the wall that had been the ceiling unfolded, and Ranjit's wrinkled face peeped through the exposed hatch. "What a mess!" he chuckled. "Things wasn't fastened down like they should of been. Of course, it never needed to be 
 Prev. P 17/18 next 
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