instead of exploding. That ought to be fixable. He could
try; it was something to do, anyway.

It took him the better part of two days, according to his watch. There
were plenty of smaller tools around for the job, although many of them
were scattered and some had been ruined by the explosions. Replacement
parts were harder to find, but he managed to pirate some of them from
the ruined engines.

He ate and slept as he felt the need. There was plenty of food in the
sick bay kitchen, and there is no need for a bed under gravity-less
conditions.

After the engine was repaired, he set about getting the rest of the ship
ready to move--if it _would_ move. The hull was still solid, so the
infraspace field should function. The air purifiers had to be
reconnected and repaired in a couple of places. The lights ditto. The
biggest job was checking all the broken leads to make sure there weren't
any short circuits anywhere.

The pseudogravity circuits were hopeless. He'd have to do without
gravity.

* * * * *

On the third day, he decided he'd better clean the place up. There were
several corpses floating around, and they were beginning to be
noticeable. He had to tow them, one by one, to the rear starboard air
lock and seal them between the inner and outer doors. He couldn't dump
them, since the outer door was partially melted and welded shut.

He took the personal effects from the men. If he ever got back to Earth,
their next-of-kin might want the stuff. On the body of the imitation
Rat, he found a belt-pouch full of microfilm. The report on the Rats'
new weapon? Possibly. He'd have to look it over later.

On the "morning" of the fourth day, he started the single remaining
engine. The infraspace field came on, and the ship began moving at
multiples of the speed of light. Pendray grinned. _Half gone, will
travel_, he thought gleefully.

If Pendray had had any liquor aboard, he would have gotten mildly drunk.
Instead, he sat down and read the spools of microfilm, using the
projector in the sick bay.

He was not a scientist in the strict sense of the word. He was a
navigator and a fairly good engineer. So it didn't surprise him any that
he couldn't understand a lot of the report. The mechanics of making a
semi-nova out of a normal star were more than a little bit over his
head. He'd read a little and then go out and take a look at the stars,
checking their movement so that he could make an