"Happened?" Akars fought the panic in his voice, the fear of this man who was not afraid of him. "Nothing much—just that the Cinnabar blew up."
"Blew up! You mean we're the only survivors?"
Akars shrugged. "I thought I was, until you popped up. Of course I looked around. There wasn't anybody else—" He stood up, stretching. "If you'll take over a while, I'll get the kinks out of me."
For an instant Jordan hesitated. Akars watched him closely. He suspected, of course—knew that he had been drugged. Even when under the kui-knor, he must have felt the tender pull away from the Cinnabar, and that without any evidence of an explosion. In a moment he would add things up, reaching the only possible conclusion. Desperately Akars glanced about for a weapon.
And Jordan, with a queer twisted smile, walked forward—not toward the pilot's seat, but toward Akars. Those big bony hands of his were working. His very silence was terrible.
Akars flattened himself against a wall. Big as he was, he knew himself to be no match for the hard-muscled first navigator. Aroused as the latter now was, he would be doubly dangerous. Akars clawed the bare wall, breathing hard.
"You drugged the air-cycle," said Jordan. "You shut off the refrigerators and took off in the tender. You stood by while the Cinnabar went to hell, with every man aboard her. Then you went back and picked up the Urulium—"
"No!" screamed Akars. "No! I swear I didn't—"
Jordan's hard fingers closed over his windpipe, crushed in his throat like a steel clamp tightened about it. He could feel his eyes bulging from their sockets, his body turning cold and dwindling away from him.
He slumped suddenly, as though unconscious. A moment longer Jordan held him in that terrible grip, then flung him away. Akars hit the wall, collapsed into a huddled heap, gasping and retching as breath passed his bruised throat. He took his time, gathering strength, sure that Jordan would not attack him while he was down. Desperation lent him courage. Concerned, there was nothing to do but fight it out. He wouldn't let the navigator get another throat hold.