The Project Gutenberg EBook of Spillthrough, by Daniel F. Galouye

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Title: Spillthrough

Author: Daniel F. Galouye

Release Date: June 2, 2010 [EBook #32657]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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SPILLTHROUGH

By Daniel F. Galouye

[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Imagination Stories of
Science and Fantasy January 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any
evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

[Sidenote: Ships switching from hyper to normal space had to do it in a
micro-second--if the crews were to live. But it would take Brad suicidal
minutes!]

Like the sibilant, labored breathing of a dying monster, the tortured
ship wailed its death sobs as it floundered in deep hyperstellar space.

_Clank-sss, clank-sss_, went the battered safety valve of the pile
cooling system.

_BOOM ... boom ... BOOM ... boom._ A severed and dangling piston rod
crashed in monotonous rhythm against a deck beam as the rest of the
auxiliary compression unit strained to satisfy its function.

An off-beat bass viol strum added its depressive note to the symphony of
destruction's aftermath--_throom-throom ... throom-throom_. It was the
persistent expansion of plate metal reacting to heat from a ruptured
tube jacket.

Forward, in the control compartment of the cargo craft, the sounds were
muted. But the intervening bulkheads did not lessen their portent.

Brad Conally ran a hand over the stubbles on his cheek and swayed
forward in the bucket-type seat, his head falling to rest against the
control column.

Somewhere aft the ship groaned and metal scraped against metal with a
sickening rending sound.

There was a lurch and Brad was jerked to one side, his head ramming
against the inclination control. The ventral jet came to life in
unexpected protest and fired once.

His hand shot out instinctively to return the loose, displaced lever to
neutral. But the force of the single burst had