"Slip him free," he ordered sharply.
"Blast me if I will," grunted the animat, giving the bony arm a sickening wrench. Onin Tufor screeched thinly.
Jay swung the club along the blunt-featured animat's skull. The animat bellowed like a wild bull. He released Onin and clawed with dirt-caked fingers at his battered skull. Then he sprang at Jay.
Jay Forsix backed away and slipped to one knee. The blow he had just delivered had dented the big brute's helmet along its base but had failed to down him. He caught the thick body across his hips and flipped the animat's six feet into the side of the cabin.
The giant, Zee Fivotu, rumbled his primitive rage and rebounded from the wall to launch himself again at Jay. Jay swung his club across the brutal forehead and again above the ear. Zee Fivotu's helmet crunched in.
Jay fell backward to escape as much of the blast as possible. But there was no explosion. The helmet with its carefully guarded control case had somehow been rendered harmless by his blows!
He rolled over and to his feet—to see Zee Fivotu's back disappearing out the cabin door. He lunged after the animat but the giant android was out the lock before he could reach it.
He was conscious of another presence in the outer airlock as his shoulder brushed something yielding.
"What?" demanded Thela Draper angrily.