rned."

Rip started to thank the Scot, but his stomach suddenly turned over and
black dizziness flooded in on him. He heard MacFife's sudden exclamation,
felt hands on him.

White light blinded him. He shook his head and tried to keep his stomach
from acting up. A voice asked, "Were you shielded from those nuclear
blasts?"

"No," he said past a constricted throat. "Not from the last. We got some
prompt radiation. I don't know how much."

"When was that? The exact time?"

Rip tried to remember. He felt horrible. "It was twenty-three-oh-five."

"Bad," the voice said. "He must have taken enough roentgens of gamma and
neutrons to reach or exceed the median-lethal dose."

Rip found his voice again. "Santos," he said urgently. "On the asteroid.
He got it, too. The rest were shielded. Get him. Quick!"

MacFife snapped orders. The ball-bat would have Santos in the ship within
minutes. Being sick in a space suit was about the most unpleasant thing
that could happen to anyone.

A hypospray tingled against Rip's arm. The drug penetrated, caught a quick
lift to all parts of his body through his bloodstream. Consciousness slid
away.

CHAPTER NINETEEN - SPACEFALL

Rip was never more eloquent. He argued, he begged, and he wheedled.

The _Aquila's_ chief physician listened with polite interest, but he shook
his head. "Lieutenant, you simply are not aware of the close call you've
had. Another two hours without treatment and we might not have been able
to save you."

"I appreciate that," Rip assured him. "But I'm fine now, sir."

"You are not fine. You are anything but fine. We've loaded you with
antibiotics and blood cell regenerator, and we've given you a total
transfusion. You feel fine, but you're not."

The doctor looked at Rip's red hair. "That's a fine thatch of hair you
have. In a week or two it will be gone and you'll have no more hair than
an egg. A well person doesn't lose hair."

The ship's radiation safety officer had put both Rip's and Santos's
dosimeters into his measuring equipment. They had taken over a hundred
roentgens of hard radiation above the tolerance limit. This was the result
of being caught unshielded when the last nuclear charge went off.

"Sir," Rip pleaded, "you can load us with suppressives. It's only a few
days more before we reach Terra. You can keep us going until then. We'll
both turn in for full treatment as soon as we get to the space platform.
But we have to finish the