"Yes. But he is a distant senior to you. I am your immediate superior. And now, damn it, stop making like a space lawyer and let's start hunting!"
Wainright nodded, but as he turned to leave he was muttering:
"Wish we had more than the steak knives in the wardroom to fight with!"
X
Vacantly the three survivors of spacewreck, in the lost lifeship, stared at the grille of the infrawave receiver in the deadly silence that followed Admiral Stone's last transmission. This was the end of message, end of hope, end of them.
Jock Norton's toneless voice gritted, "That about rips it wide, doesn't it?"
Alice Hemingway's voice came out, weak and thin. "Ted—you tried. Now you'll—"
Andrews stood up quickly, and strode across the floor shakily. He faced the infrawave receiver with a mad glitter in his eye, and he roared:
"Damn you, come back! Damn you, come back!"