We were well out in the void, thundering toward Venus, when Twilken pointed excitedly at a small speck on the telescreen.
"That's a ship, Tod!" he yelled. "That blasted Jovian's following us!"
I poured more power to my craft and slammed down frantically on the meteor-shield stud—but it was too late. A great blast rocked the ship and girders groaned their protest as they buckled under the terrific pressure. A piece of flying metal smacked Twilken on the head and he sank to the floor, out cold.
I ran to the navigation room locker and snatched out a couple of spacesuits. I tugged and stuffed Twilken into one and barely made it into my own when the air began to hiss out through the torn plates.
We were caught up in the vacuum and whisked out into the dark, cold vastness, to float about like two corks in a millpond.
The Jovian ship, for such it proved to be, rushed in quickly and fastened a grappling-beam on our helpless figures. In less than a minute, we were inside the cruiser and facing the leering Jovian of the musk-parlor incident.
"I am mosd pleased ad dis oppordunidy do renew our acquaindance," he smirked. "No doubd you know whad I am afder? I shall wasde no dime in playing cad and mouse. Give me de formula and dere shall be no drouble."
Twilken came to long enough to shout: "You shan't have it!"
"Bud I will," the Jovian assured him. "I have bud do search you. I am cerdain we shall find de formula on your person. Will you surrender id volundarily or musd we use force?"