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." The look-out in the forward tower was clinging to his window. On the deck below our turret a member of the crew appeared, stood lurching for a moment, then shouted, and turned and ran, swaying, aimless. From the lower hull-corridors our grids sounded with the tramping of running steps. Panic among the crew was spreading over the ship. A chaos below decks. * * * * * I pulled at the emergency switch again. Dead.... But down below there was the manual controls. "Snap, we must get down. The signals." "Yes." Coniston's voice came like a scream from the grid. "Hahn is dead--the controls are broken! Hahn is dead!" We barely heard him. I shouted, "Miko--hold Anita! Come on, Snap!" We clung to the ladders. Snap was behind me. "Careful, Gregg! Good God!" This dizzying whirl. I tried not to look. The deck under me was now a blurred kaleidoscope of swinging patches of moonlight and shadow. We reached the deck. Ran, swaying, lurching. It seemed that from the turret Anita's voice followed us. "Be careful!"