nds. It had
moved. He finally saw its exhausts some distance away.

He forgot his own predicament in a grin. The Connie cruiser had moved, but
not because its commander had wanted to. It had been right in the path of
the nuclear blast, although some distance from it. The Connie had been
literally shoved away.

Then Rip forgot the cruiser. His suit ventilator was whining under the
terrific heat and his whole body was bathed in perspiration. The sun was
getting them. It was only a short time until the ventilator overloaded and
burned out. They had to reach the asteroid before then. The trouble was,
there was nothing further he could do about it. He had only air bottles
left, and their blast was so weak that the effect wouldn't speed him up
much. Nevertheless, he called to Santos and directed him to use his
bottles. Then he did the same.

Santos spoke up. "Sir, we're going to make it."

In the same instant, Rip saw that they would land on the dark side. The
asteroid was turning over and over, and for a second he had the impression
he was looking at a turning globe of the earth, the kind used in
elementary school back home. But this gray planet was scarcely bigger than
the giant globe at the entrance of the Space Council building on Terra.

The gray metal world suddenly leaped into sharp focus and seemed to rush
toward him. It was an optical illusion. The ability of the eyes to
perceive depth sharply--the faculty known as depth perception--didn't appear
to operate normally until the eyes were within a certain distance of an
object.

He knew he was going to hit hard. The way to keep from being hurt was to
turn the vertical energy of his arrival into motion in another direction.
As he swept down to the metal surface he started running, his legs pumping
wildly in space. He hit with a bone-jarring thud, lost his footing and
fell sideways, both hands cradling his helmet. He got to his feet
instantly and looked for Santos. A good thing his equipment was
shock-mounted, he thought. Otherwise the communicator would be knocked for
a line of galaxies.

"You all right, sir?" Santos called anxiously.

"Yes. Are you?"

"I'm fine. I think the others are over there." He pointed.

"We'll find them," Rip said. His hip hurt like fury from smashing against
the unyielding metal, and the worst part was that he couldn't rub it. The
blow had been strong enough to hurt through the heavy fabric and air
pressure, but his hand wasn't stron