m now," Molo chuckled. "This is the end for them, Gregg
Haljan."

There were only three of us in the turret: Molo and I, and my
watchful, silent guard who sat cross-legged, with a ray-gun pointed at
me.

Meka and the two girls were below during all the engagement.

It was over now.

During this lull Molo had sent the men from the deck gun ports to
their hull quarters. Our decks were empty now; the bridges and
catwalks up here had momentarily no occupants. The _Star-Streak_ had
little velocity, only a slow drift downward toward the Moon's surface,
which now was only a few hundred miles beneath us.

The lunar disc was a great dark spread of desolation, with only the
sunlight topping the distant horizon limb. And from under us, to the
side, was the source of the giant gravity-beam. Over us were the
watch-Wandl vessels, and, still higher, the helpless knot of
Grantline's ships hurtling down.

"Got them now," Molo repeated. "In another...."

He never finished. From the open doorway of the turret a figure rose
up. Snap! His aspect, even more than his appearance, transfixed me.
Snap, with his clothes torn; grimy and spattered with blood; his face
pale and gaunt, with hollow, blazing eyes. And above it, the shock of
rumpled red hair. In one hand he clutched a ray-gun, and in the other
a blood-stained knife!

My guard squatting on the floor, half-turned. Snap's bolt met him
before he could raise his weapon. He tumbled dead almost at my feet.
And mingled with the hiss of the bolt was Snap's shout at the unarmed
Molo.

"Into the corner, you! Back up, you damned traitor, else I'll kill you
as I've killed everyone else on this ship!"

19

I had leaped and seized the gun which was still in the hand of the
dead guard. "Snap, the girls!"

"Down below. Free. They've got Meka bound and gagged, locked and
sealed in a bunk-room. You bring them up! I'll hold this accursed
traitor. No need to kill him. By the gods, I've killed enough!"

He saw for the first time the vast silent drama in the firmament
outside the dome windows. "Gregg, for the love of...."

"No time now, Snap! I'll get the girls."

"Watch out. I might have missed somebody down below."

He had. Three men appeared on the forward deck near the foot of our
turret ladder. My bolt spat down upon them; two of them fell. The
other ran aft, toward where I saw Venza and Anita appearing from the
lounge doorway of the cabin superstructure. I fired again, and