Scone did not waste any time. He drew his gun; his men followed suit; he told Shaposhnikov what he meant to do. The Russian, a tall thin man of about fifty, seemed numbed. Perhaps, too many catastrophes had happened in too short a time. The death of Earth, the attack by the Axis ships, and, now, totally unexpected, this. The world was coming to an end in too many shapes and too swiftly. Scone cleared the control room of all _Zemlya_ personnel except the commander. The others were locked up with the forty-odd men and women who were surprised at their posts by the Americans. Scone ordered Shaposhnikov to set up orders to the navigational computer for a new path. This one would send the _Zemlya_ at the maximum acceleration endurable by the personnel towards a point in the south polar region near Clavius. When the _Zemlya_ reached the proper distance, it would begin a deceleration equally taxing which would bring it to a halt approximately half a kilometer above the surface at the indicated point. Shaposhnikov, speaking disjointedly like a man coming up out of a nightmare, protested that the _Zemlya_ was not built to stand such a strain. Moreover, if Scone succeeded in his plan to hide the great globe at the bottom of a chasm under an overhang.... Well, he could only predict that the lower half of the _Zemlya_ would be crushed under the weight--even with the Moon's weak gravity. "That won't harm the animal tanks," said Scone. "They're in the upper levels. Do as I say. If you don't, I'll shoot you and set up the computer myself." "You are mad," said Shaposhnikov. "But I will do my best to get us down safely. If this were ordinary war, if we weren't man's--Earth's--last hope, I would tell you to go ahead, shoot. But...." Ingrid Nashdoi, standing beside Broward, whispered in a trembling voice, "The Russian is right. He is mad. It's too great a gamble. If we lose, then everybody loses." "Exactly what Scone is betting on," murmured Broward. "He knows the Russians and Chinese know it, too. Like you, I'm scared. If I could have foreseen what he was going to do, I think I'd have put a bullet in him back at Eratosthenes. But it's too late to back out now. We go along with him no matter what." * * * * * The voyage from the Moon and the capture of the _Zemlya_ had taken twelve hours. Now, with the _Zemlya's_ mighty drive applied--and the four destroyers riding in the landing-port--the voyage back took three hours. During this time, the Russian base sent messages. Scone refused to answer. He intended to tell all the Moon his plans but not until the _Zemlya_ was close to the end of its path. When the globe was a thousand kilometers from the surface, and decelerating with the force of 3g's, he and his men returned to the destroyers. All except three, who remained with Shaposhnikov.