CHAPTER 20
"Turn on the lights! Cut in the emergency batteries!"
Connel's bull-throated roar carried through the ship as he stood on the power deck with Astro and shouted to Tom on the control deck. The space torpedo had destroyed the stern of the vessel, and if it hadn't been for Astro's quick action in sealing off the aftersection of the ship, all the air might have been lost and the crew dead of suffocation.
A moment later the emergency lights glowed weakly and Connel and the big Venusian cadet began a quick inspection of the ship. The power deck was a total loss. The ship would never get under way again.
Up on the radar bridge, Roger was about to turn on the radar scanner when Tom appeared and stopped him.
"Wait a while, Roger," he said. "We may need the power for something else."
"What, for instance?" snorted Roger.
"That ship is still out there, probably closing in for the kill."