Supercharged air whistled out of the cabin. As the artificially heavy air blew itself out, Heydrick felt his head swell as if it were going to explode. His eyes seemed to be squeezing out of his head. Dazed, he groped to the locker and got out the space-suits. The cold bit into him like needles of ice till he struggled into his suit. He set his atmosphere control, then fought his way through the shattered wreckage to Ria. She was in no condition to resist as he forced the bulky space-suit on her. He set the controls on her suit, then talked into his microphone. "You are a problem child," he said. "How'd you manage it?" Ria was sick and dizzy. She staggered on her feet. "I had some benzedrine--stole it from the emergency kit. Your paralysis needle barely scratched me anyhow." She fell weakly against the bulkhead. Heydrick seized her and dragged her through the riven shell of the control room into the shelter of a gaunt outcropping. "The forward rockets are building up. They'll go any minute." A bellowing geyser of dust-shrouded flame roared up. Flying metal clattered brutally on their shelter. "Just in time," he said. Ria lay on the ground, retching weakly. "Well, the security boys get a new ship. They'll be happy. From here on, we walk. I hope you're satisfied." The upper limb of an immense crescent rose above the horizon. Jupiter. Its sombre light revealed a savage wasteland of barren rock and volcanic ash. "Come on, Babe. You should enjoy this. It's thirty miles, and the walking's bad. But we like it that way, don't we?" Sulkily, Ria got to her feet and followed him. * * * * * The Martian Express Liner, _Phobos_, went into full gear with a velocity of 89 Martian gravities. After detouring the dangerous asteroid belt, the ship nosed down in a long curving glide to intercept the orbit of Mars. Far ahead was a blurred crescent of red, glowing with soft radiance against a star-sprinkled void. Lee Heydrick watched the planet swing slowly across the field of the glass. A deep unrest troubled him, but he refused to face the mask it might wear and tried to force it out of his mind. "We should be there in fourteen hours," the co-pilot said. "That'll be a relief. This is one job I don't like." The pilot glanced at them sourly. "I thought you were through with the service," he shot at Heydrick. "I am--it's my last job. I can't live on any of the inner planets after being exposed to the zero-rays of outer space. It takes six months for a resignation to go through in the Space Patrol. My time is up in two weeks and four days. After that, I'll have to stick to the places outside the asteroid belt or resign myself to a very brief life--18 months, at the outside." "Too bad. What're you going to do?"