d three Mentorians."

"Anyone apt to be behind shielding--say, in the drive chamber?"

"No, I think they're all outside."

Montano nodded, idly. "Then we won't have to worry."

Bart slipped his hand toward his weapon. Montano saw the movement,
cocked his head in question; then, as understanding flashed over his
face, his hand darted to his own gun. But Bart had pressed the charge of
his, and Montano slumped over without a cry. He looked so limp that Bart
gasped. Was he dead? Hastily he fumbled the lax hand for a pulse. After
a long, endless moment he saw Montano's chest twitch and knew the man
was breathing.

Well, Montano would be safe here in the bunker. Hastily, Bart looked at
his timepiece. Half an hour before the radiation was lethal--_for the
Lhari_. Was it already, for him? Shakily, he unfastened the door. He ran
out into the glare, seeing as he ran that his badge was tinged with an
ever-darkening, gold, orange....

Montano had said there was a safety margin, but maybe he was wrong,
maybe all Bart would accomplish would be his own death! He ran back
along the line of bunkers, his heart pounding with his racing feet. Two
crewmen came along the line, young white-crested Lhari from the other
watch. He gasped, "Where is the captain?"

"Down that way--what's wrong, Bartol?" But Bart was gone, his muscles
aching with the unaccustomed effort inside gravity. Putting on speed, he
saw the tall, austere shape of Vorongil, his banded cloak dark against
the glaring light. Vorongil turned, startled, at the sound of his
running feet.

Suddenly, Bart realized that he was still holding his energon-ray. In
shock and revulsion, he dropped it at Vorongil's feet.

"Captain, go warn the men! They'll all be dead in half an hour! There
are lethal radiations--"

"_What?_ Are you sunstruck?"

Bart stopped cold. Never once had it crossed his mind what he would say
to Vorongil or how he would make the captain believe his story, without
revealing Montano. He started to hold up his badge, realized the Lhari
captain could not see color, and dropped it again, while Vorongil bent
over to pick up the fallen gun. "Are you sunstruck or mad, Bartol?
What's this babble?"

"Captain, everybody on the _Swiftwing_--"

"And speak Lhari!" Vorongil demanded, and Bart realized that in his
excitement he had been shouting in Universal. He drew a long, deep
breath.

"Captain, there are lethal radiations being released here," he said.
"You hav