Deadly Litter by White James

Author:White, James [White, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780345020291
Google: is4yuAAACAAJ
Amazon: B00I6VXUZC
Goodreads: 2321462
Publisher: Bantam Books
Published: 1964-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Space personnel were accustomed to low-pressure air in their ships, it minimised the shock of decompression, or pressure-drop, in the event of a puncture. As Surgenor bent over him he could see that Selby’s nose arid ears were bleeding and that his eyes, though still tight shut, were wet as a result of boil-off from his tear ducts. Water blisters had begun to form all over his skin due to the vapour pressure underneath it, and it would be a while before he was good-looking again, but he was breathing harshly and did not seem to be coughing blood. He must have evacuated his lungs when Surgenor shouted and equalised inside and outside pressure sufficiently to escape death or permanent damage. Selby would be all right. He straightened up.

Suddenly he made a dive for the gun at the prostrate Russian’s waist: four spacesuited figures were emerging from the well. Then Murchison’s voice came booming at him through the phones.

“It’s all right, sir.” he called, “They’re harmless.” He indicated a figure with its helmet thrown back and added, “I found this one in the control-room trying to shoot himself. The others were locked in their cabins—I made them put on suits.” He tapped his head significantly. “They’re sick men.

“But we’ve got to get out of here,” he went on, displaying strong emotion for the first time since Surgenor had met him. “The reactor has been set to melt and the damper controls are smashed. We’ve got about twenty minutes …”

Kelso’s voice broke in on them: “What’s happening? Is everything all right …?”

“Yes, yes, just a minute!” said Surgenor brusquely, then: “Murchison, get these people ready for outside! Sure this is everybody? Right, and help Selby into another suit, then go out and fish down those two we threw away outside. And Kelso, are you listening? Tell Potemkin everything is all right and to come over here and help with the prisoners. Everybody is to be brought to Mizar until we sort things out. I …” He allowed his tone to alter subtly. “… want to see about the Captain.”

In the excitement of the past half hour Surgenor had forgotten all about the Captain. He had to get back to Mizar to make sure that the Ideal Skipper was placed neatly out of the way before the Russians started commenting on the fact that Mizar’s crew were taking orders from somebody who wasn’t there. He would have the Captain injured, he thought as he hurried towards the ship, suffering slightly from shock and a minor decompression caused when the missile struck the ship, and temporarily confined to his hammock. That should keep him out of the way nicely.

As to the rest of it, what he was going to do with the crew of Potemkin, and the MVD crowd, and how he was going to avoid news getting back of an incident which would almost certainly touch off the Hell-War, he did not know.

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