a dozen of them were still closer. Gleaming, whirling
circles, thin as knife-blades; they passed close under our stern, came
broadside.

These were tense, horrible seconds. The discs skimmed our bow; one
seemed to miss our dome by inches. Grantline's volley annihilated four
more, but there were still eight of them. They swung in at our stern.

I was aware of confusion throughout the _Cometara_. The crew and
stewards were running up to the bow quarter-deck. My second officer
stood there, stricken. The stern lookout screamed his futile warning.

Useless! I saw one of the discs strike our stern dome, then another.
Still others. They were silent blows, but it seemed that I could feel
them cutting into the dome-plates.

The dome was cracking! Then, after that horrible instant, came the
sound: crunch, a rumble; the grind of crushed and breaking metal;
then the puff and surge of the outward explosion.

I saw the whole tip of the stern dome cracking, bursting outward,
forced by our interior air pressure. And over all the _Cometara_ the
outgoing air was sucking and whining with a growing rush of wind.

I shouted, "Drac! Close the stern bulkhead!"

I set the word-buttons for the distress siren, and pulled the lever.
Its voice screamed over the uproar. "_Keep forward! Take the
space-suits! Prepare to abandon ship!_"

7

In the midst of the chaos I was aware that all the remaining discs
struck us upon the port stern quarter. The broken dome of the stern
showed a jagged hole, but the up-sliding cross-bulkhead partially shut
it off. Two or three of the crew and the stern lookout were gone
behind that closing bulkhead. Their bodies in a moment would be blown
into space.

"It may hold, Drac. Order Waters out of his cubby. Forward!"

I was calling the engine-room. "Order your men up by the bow, not the
stern." But I got no answer from the engine-chief.

I raised Grantline. "Order your men forward: Clear amidships! I want
to close the central bulkheads. If the stern one breaks with the
pressure...."

"Right, Gregg. Are we lost?"

"God knows! We'll know in a minute or two. Get all your men into their
space-suits. Keep in the bow. Prepare the exit-port there."

"Right, Gregg. You coming down?"

"Yes. When I finish." I cut him off. "Drac, get out of here! Did you
order Waters forward?"

"He won't leave."

"Why the hell not?"

"He thinks he may be able to get communication with Earth."

"He can't stay wher