Maher stared at him. "God forbid!" he said. "Unless it's in the comic section!" "Yah!" agreed Schwenky. "In comic section!" * * * * * Two weeks later, as the ship crossed Earth's orbit and headed in behind the planet in the plane of the sun, the meteorite hit. It tore a great hole in the passenger side of the ship, and knocked out the port jets. The ship veered crazily under the influence of its lopsided blast, and the crew was hurled against the wall and pinned there as the continuing involuntary maneuver built up acceleration. Gene, who had been in his bunk, was pressed against the wall by a giant hand. Savagely he fought to adjust himself into a more bearable position, then tried to figure out what had happened. Obviously the ship was veering about, out of control. "Meteorite!" he gasped. "We've been hit." He pulled himself from the bunk, slid along the wall to the door. It was all he could do to open it, but once in the companionway outside, he found that he could crawl along one wall, off the floor, in an inching progress. He made it finally to the control room, and forced his body around the door jamb and inside. Against the far wall Maher was plastered, dazed, but conscious. At his feet lay Heinie, his head crushed, obviously dead. "Cut off the rest of the jets!" gasped Maher. "I can't make it!" Gene crawled slowly around the room, following the wall, until he could reach the controls, then he pulled the lever that controlled the jet blast. The ship's unnatural veering stopped instantly and both Maher and Gene dropped heavily to the floor. Gene was up first and helped Maher to his feet. Together they turned to the indicators. "Passenger deck's out!" said Maher. "Except for a few compartments. The automatic seals have operated. But there must be somebody left alive in them." "We've got to get them," said Gene. "But first, we've got to check up on what damage has been done here, and how many casualties we have." "Heinie's dead," said Maher. "He hit the wall with his head." Gene shuddered, and deep in his stomach nausea churned. He thought of Ann and his blood froze in his veins. "You take below decks, I'll go up," he said. Ann's cabin was on the deck above. Maher nodded and staggered away. Gene scrambled up the stairwell as fast as he could, and ran down the corridor. At Ann's door he stopped, turned the knob. The door opened. The room was empty. Suddenly he heard running footsteps, and Ann threw herself into his arms, sobbing. "Where were you?" he asked, almost savagely. "I went to your cabin, to see if you were hurt. What happened to the ship?" "Meteorite hit us. Knocked out the passenger deck. Most of the passengers will be dead, but we've got to go in and rescue the survivors."