ions they
were only placed while in port! And their shifting mechanisms were
imperative!

I was on my feet. "Snap! Good God, we're in neutral!"

Miko, if he had not realized it before, was aware if it now. The
Moon-disc moved visibly as the _Planetara_ lurched. The vault of the
heavens was slowly swinging.

Miko ripped out a heavy oath. "Haljan! What is this?"

He stood up, still holding Anita. But there was nothing that he could do
in this emergency. "Haljan--what--"

The heavens turned with a giant swoop. The Moon was over us. It swung in
dizzying arc. Overhead, then back past our stern; under us, then
appearing over our bow.

The _Planetara_ had turned over. Upending. Rotating, end over end.

For a moment or two I think all of us in that turret stood and clung.
The Moon-disc, the Earth, Sun and all the stars were swinging past our
windows. So horribly dizzying. The _Planetara_ seemed lurching and
tumbling. But it was an optical effect only. I stared with grim
determination at my feet. The turret seemed to steady.

Then I looked again. That horrible swoop of all the heavens! And the
Moon, as it went past, seemed expanded. We were falling! Out of control,
with the Moon-gravity pulling us inexorably down!

"That accursed Hahn--" Miko, stricken with his lack of knowledge of
these controls, was wholly confused.

* * * * *

A moment only had passed. My fancy that the Moon-disc was enlarged was
merely the horror of my imagination. We had not fallen far enough yet
for that.

But we were falling. Unless I could do something, we would crash upon
the Lunar surface.

Anita, killed in this _Planetara_ turret. The end of everything for us.

Action came to me. I gasped, "Miko, you stay here! The controls are
dead! You stay here--hold Anita."

I ignored Moa's weapon which she was still clutching mechanically. Snap
thrust her away.

"Sit back! Let us alone! We're falling! Don't you understand?"

This deadly danger, to level us all! No longer were we captors and
captured. Not brigands for this moment. No thought of Grantline's
treasure! Trapped humans only! Leveled by the common, instinct of
self-preservation. Trapped here together, fighting for our lives.

Miko gasped. "Can you--check us? What happened?"

"I don't know. I'll try."

I stood clinging. This dizzying whirl! From the audiphone grid
Coniston's voice sounded.

"I say, Haljan, something's wrong! Hahn doesn't signal."