"The light switches are all on a board to the right of the entrance door. The other controls are as readily accessible."
"Leaves us in something of a position!" I whispered.
The hand which she had placed in my own tightened its grip. I heard LeConte grunt with satisfaction as he pressed forward. I began to figure on ways and means of getting to our wrecked ship alone after the others were aboard the cruiser.
We crossed another fifty or sixty yards of the darkness, and found fewer of the badly shaken Orconites in our path. Now, in that thick obscurity, I sensed that we were nearing the magnificent, tapering hull with its fish-scale sides.
"Come on!" I urged unnecessarily. I kicked into several of the yielding bodies left from our first fight, before Leider had taken us, and in a little while the feel of cool, smooth metal under my hand told me we had reached the gangway.
"Up you go, Captain!" I snapped, and as she clutched the slender rail of the gangway and plunged upwards, "LeConte, you next. Koto—"
But Koto laid a firm hand on my arm.
"No, I do not go."
We stopped where we were. The noises of pursuit were still around us, and I could have slugged him for making a delay.
"You fool, get aboard!" I roared.