There were the oxygen tanks, the big ones used for fuel. If Kraag could
get to them and burn them open, Jonner couldn't last long outside. But
they were scattered pretty far from the personnel sphere. Jonner would
get to the sphere for sure if he tried that.
"Okay, Jonner, I know when I'm licked," said Kraag. "Come on in."
"I'm not too far away to see the gun, Kraag."
"I'll take it back to the sphere and leave it."
"Why not just toss it away?"
"And have you beat me to it and get the drop on me? We'll leave the
guns in the sphere and I'll meet you on even terms."
"I'll believe it when I see it."
Kraag went back to the sphere. He couldn't stand in shadow without
looking suspicious, but he took the heat-gun from his belt
ostentatiously and swung it in an arc, apparently tossing it through
the open outer lock. Instead, he held onto it and hung it by the
trigger guard to a belt hook at the back of his suit.
"I'm all clean, Jonner. Come on up," he invited.
"Let's see the hooks, Kraag," said Jonner.
Kraag held his arms aloft, wriggling the empty steel fingers of the
spacesuit. Jonner came toward him, floating high above the surface with
each step. At just about the extreme range of the heat-gun, he stopped.
Kraag kept his arms outspread, but tensed himself.
"Clean, so far," said Jonner drily. "Now turn around, Kraag."
"And have you jump me from behind? Not hardly."
"Gun on the back hook, eh, Kraag?"
"Damn you, Jonner!" Kraag reached behind him for the gun and at the
same time leaped toward Jonner. Jonner, ready, jumped back, and Jonner
was a more powerful man. Handling a heat-gun with the hand-hooks of a
spacesuit is awkward business, and by the time Kraag could bring the
weapon to bear on Jonner and press the trigger, Jonner's distance was
such that the ray obviously did no worse than make things uncomfortably
warm for him.
"I didn't think that surrender rang true," commented Jonner. "If you'd
been level, you'd have tossed away the heat-gun."
Then Jonner revealed that he was not entirely weaponless. As he hit the
surface, his arm moved in an arc and a good-sized rock came hurtling
through space toward Kraag.
Kraag writhed frantically, two feet off the ground, and the stone
missed him by inches. Kraag landed on his side and bounced again.
Jonner hit once more and hurled another rock. Evidently he was armed
with several of them. This one ricocheted off the ground near Kraag
just as Kraag finally slid to rest.
Getting to his feet and turning to flee was agonizingly slow, when
every frantic movement lifted him off the ground. Another stone came
sailing by, to strike the personnel sphere and rebound at an angle,
before Kraag could jump back, away from Jonner.
Perspiring and panting, he clambered hastily back into the safety of
the airlock.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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