lp
after hearing the calls. He hoped, with all his being, that they had
come out in a region of inhabited planet systems, in a regular shipping
lane, so that his passengers could be picked up and taken to port--any
port.

He kept his line open to Operations, and every minute or so Wyman spoke
to him, giving the data on the climbing piles. Ten had been jettisoned
in hyperspace, and so had Fourteen and Fifteen. Since their shift to
normal space, it had been necessary also to detach the entire bank of
Nineteen, Twenty, and Twenty-one, whose index had risen at a terrifying
rate.

Wyman's voice spoke in his ear. "One, Two, and Three are climbing fast,
sir."

"Shoot them away!"

"No good, sir. I've tried. The release mechanism has fused, and those
three Piles are welded to the ship!"

Evans closed his eyes. That meant that the life of the ship was doomed.
There would be no way to save her. But the passengers could still be
saved, if they got away soon enough, before the three Piles vaporized.

"Wyman!" he whispered despairingly, "is there any single Pile that isn't
heating?"

"No, sir."

"Is there any single Pile that's responding to your dampers?"

"No, sir, not one."

"Then, in your experience, they are all bound to go, sooner or later?"

"I've never seen anything like this in my experience, sir. It looks
bad."

The door opened, and Jasperson slunk in. His skin had lost its
cushioning, gray folds sagged under his cheek bones, and black hollows
outlined his glittering blue eyes. The Captain ignored him, and spoke
into the phone.

"Very well. In exactly fifteen minutes I shall sound the alarm and we'll
abandon ship. I can't take a chance on waiting any longer. Keep a
skeleton crew at work on those Piles to hold them down as much as
possible, and have all other crewmen report to their lifeboat stations."

"Right, sir. But Boat C has gone, you remember. When we dumped Pile
Ten."

"Yes. Distribute her passengers among the remaining boats."

He turned to look at Jasperson, who was shivering as though he were
freezing.

"Is there no hope, Josiah? Is this the end?"

"The end of the _Star Lord_, yes. I hope to save the passengers. You
heard me. In fifteen minutes all preparations should be finished, then I
sound the alarm. Don't worry, Burl. There's room enough for everybody,
your skin is safe."

"But won't the lifeboats be horribly crowded?"

"Crowded, yes, but not impossibly so. If they can carry two h