Jupiter V now extended past the edges of the screen. They could see but a segment of it--a segment that raced ever upward, ever towards them, dividing into a thousand and finer details every second. "Twenty seconds," the _Chonya_ reported. The meteor swarm seemed to close in about them--tighter, tighter. "Fifteen seconds." The meteors' light was stunning, blinding. Shane's teeth were clenched, his lips parted, his eyes glued tight to the viewer of the visiscreen. The muscles stood out along his neck. The tension about him was a living thing. "Ten seconds." A sort of paralysis seemed to grip the Earthman. He stood frozen, still staring like one in a trance. The ribs in the satellite's casing stood out, now--the ports, the vents. The meteors seemed to have grown to blazing suns. "Five seconds." Shane's paralysis broke. He snatched the phones, and of a sudden his eyes were blazing like the nightmare scene beyond their hull. "Veer!" he shouted. "Don't land! Veer--!" The _Chonya_ commander's hand struck the jet-globe with a crack like a whip. It spun till it sang, racing round and round. The ship swung out in a wild gyration. Reeling, slashing crazily across the moon's perimeter, it hurtled off through space. Behind them, the other ships, too, were peeling clear. But not the meteor swarm. Down it plunged, down, in the course the ships had followed, straight at the hundred-mile ball that was Jupiter V. "They'll crash--!" the _Chonya_ cried, and jubilation was in his voice. "They did not know we were so close! Now it's too late to turn them!" The explosive flash of the meteors bursting through the satellite's casing came like an exclamation point. Great cracks appeared--monstrous fissures, spewing flame. And still more meteors hurtled down--the whole, vast, captive swarm. The planetoid's casing glowed red-hot, then white, till the moon was a fiery, radiant sphere. Then suddenly, it seemed to shiver. A gigantic explosion ripped one side, sent the planetoid spinning over. A huge, wedge-shaped chunk tore loose and blasted off through space; then another ... another. * * * * * Without a word, the commander of the _Chonya_ craft picked up the manual on interspatial navigation, riffled through to the page on Jupiter V. Tore it out, crumpled it, dropped it to the floor. Shane threw him a grim, tight grin and said: "There's still work, back on Gadar." The _Chonya_ spun the jet-globe; focussed the visicreen on the dark star. Even as the image drew sharp and clear, a ship shot out of one of the great volcanic pipes that served as the planet's ramping spots. Shane's face went dark again. "That's Reggar's ship. Where is he going?" And then, beside him, Kyrsis said, "Oh, no--!" Shane turned at the sheer, stark panic in her voice. Her face showed even more. The Earthman looked back to the visiscreen again; and this time he, too, rocked under the impact of the thing that was happening.