II
Norman tried to fling her away from him but the fear-crazed woman clutched his hair as he took the wheel again and he was almost dragged from his seat as he turned the wheel another notch. The wheel blistered his fingers, but he turned it with will-screaming slowness, ignoring Keren's clawing hands. The pointer on the stratometer climbed up the dial in short, inexorable jerks. Tick-tick-tick-tick! Tolling their funeral march at a thousand fiery miles per second ... per second....
In the nightmare of those moments, Norman saw Dorothy's reflection in the fog-smeared glass, tugging at the frantic brunette, trying to pull her away from him. He saw her hand rise, a wrench in it. She brought it down on the Venusian's dark head as the clock swept to its nerve-breaking jump and he spun the wheel with all his strength.
It was a timeless instant. His hand lay limp on the wheel, his eyes on Dorothy's dim figure in the foggy glass. She stood there like a bad camera shot of a little girl dressed up in her papa's overalls. Then, slowly, he realized that what he thought was the reflection of one of her blue eyes was instead a small, luminous globe suspended in the bright nothingness of sunlight ahead. He rubbed his sweat-burning eyes.
The blackness of the glass was fading quickly, the seam bulges sinking back with the contraction. Without the slightest tremor, the counteractive had stopped their plunge into the Sun, and the reverse rockets had taken over. They were headed out again. The blue globe grew swiftly as they approached. Source of a thousand tales of terror, Vulcan sped toward them out of the distance.
In a few moments, washed air cooled the pilot room as the air conditioning unit purred full speed. Its soft whistle, the brighter light and Norman's instruments were the only evidence that they swam effortlessly in a wild current that swept into the gates of the solar hell.
"If we had enough insulation," Norman said, "we could go into the very flames of the sun. Like we almost did anyhow." Johnny's counteractive had given the universe new eyes—to seek an elixir to save his life.
Keren moaned.
Dorothy held a glass of water to Keren's scarlet lips. "There's a mirror in the galley," she told her. "Go freshen up before we land." Keren looked like a wilted orchid and Norman smiled, finding it difficult to hate anyone after the ordeal they had just survived.