The Ragged Astronauts

Toller removed his gloves and made a fresh attempt to bridge the void, but even though he had braced himself against a partition the cold-stiffened rope again failed to unwind properly. It was while he was retrieving it that he noticed an u

A moment’s reflection told Toller that Fle

“Have you noticed what’s happening?” Toller said to Zavotle in a low voice. “We’re ru

Zavotle assessed the situation. “Is there any point in using the laterals?”

“We’d only start cartwheeling.”

“This is serious,” Zavotle said. “First of all Fle

“I doubt if he did that on purpose.” Toller wheeled on Rillomyner. “The ca

At that moment Fle

“I’m getting scared, captain.” Although Fle

“We’ll bring you in. There’s.…” Toller allowed the sentence to tail off. He had been going to assure Fle

Rillomyner touched Toller’s arm. “There’s nothing that will fit in the ca

“Good man,” Toller said, appreciative of the way the mechanic was overcoming his acrophobia in the emergency. He moved aside to let Rillomyner make the throw. The mechanic tied the free end of the glasscord to the rail, judged the distances and hurled the hammer out into space.

Toller saw at once that he had made the mistake of aiming high, compensating for a full-gravity drop that was not going to occur. The hammer dragged the cord out behind it and came to a halt in the air a tantalising few yards above Fle

“That’s no good,” Toller snapped. “Pull it in fast and throw straight at him next time.” He was trying to suppress a growing sense of panic and despair. Fle

A familiar voice spoke inside Toller’s head. Action and reaction, Lain was saying. That’s the universal principle…

“Fle

There was a pause before Fle

“This is an order,” Toller bellowed. “Throw the carble, and throw it right now! We’re ru

There was a further pounding delay, then Fle

Toller swore in frustration. “Hurry, hurry! We’re going to lose you.”

“You’ve already lost me, captain.” Fle

There was a sudden sweeping movement of his arm and he went tumbling backwards as the carble sailed towards the ship. It was travelling too low. Toller watched numbly as the terrified animal, mewing and clawing at the air, passed out of sight below the gondola. Its yellow eyes had seemed to be boring into his own. Fle

“You stupid little midget,” Rillomyner sobbed as~he again sent the hammer snaking towards Fle

“He’ll be falling for maybe a day,” Zavotle whispered. “Just think of it… a whole day… falling… I wonder if he’ll still be alive when he hits the ground.”

“I’ve got other things to think about,” Toller said harshly, turning away from the gondola wall, unable to watch Fle

His brief required him to abort the flight in the event of losing a crew member or sustaining some serious structural damage to the ship. Nobody could have foreseen both circumstances arising as a result of one trivial-seeming accident with the galley stove, but he felt no less responsible — and it remained to be seen if the S.E.S. administrators would also regard him as culpable.

“Switch us back to jet power,” he said to Rillomyner. “We’re going home.”

PART III

Region of Strangeness

Chapter 16

The cave was in the side of a ragged hill, in an area of broken terrain where numerous gullies, rocky projections and a profusion of spiky scrub made the going difficult for man or beast.

Lain Maraquine was content to let the bluehorn pick its own way around the various obstacles, giving it only an occasional nudge to keep it heading for the orange flag which marked the cave’s position. The four mounted soldiers of his personal guard, obligatory for any senior official of the S.E.S., followed a short distance behind, the murmur of their conversation blending with the heavy drone of insects. Littlenight was not long past and the high sun was baking the ground, clothing the horizon in tremulous purple-tinted blankets of hot air.

Lain felt unusually relaxed, appreciating the opportunity to get away from the skyship base and turn his mind to matters which had nothing to do with world crises and interplanetary travel. Toller’s premature return from the proving flight, ten days earlier, had involved Lain in a harrowing round of meetings, consultations and protracted studies of the new scientific data obtained. One faction in the S.E.S. administration had wanted a second proving flight with a full descent to Overland and detailed mapping of the central continent. In normal circumstances Lain would have been in agreement, but the rapidly worsening situation in Kolcorron overrode all other consideration.…