The vessel jerked with a huge shudder that threw Rawson and the rest of the crew off balance.
With a screech of metal the space ship picked up speed as it was drawn into the potential in the center of the drift as well as being pushed by the power of its rockets.
With greyhound leaps, Rawson tore towards the control dials and twisted the wheels of the gyroscope. The ship groaned and reeled. It refused to heed the control.
"Power! Reverse the power!" Rawson screeched into the intercom. "Reverse the rockets!"
He felt the instruments tremble under his hands like reeds. Suddenly the rockets went dead. Then as the crew reversed the power, they roared to life again.
The Star Flight jerked in a death struggle. The rockets rattled and screamed as if sand had been thrown into the atom chargers.
Slowly the ship turned over, tilting at right angles to the drift.
A blinding flash like a bolt of lightning flamed across the power panels. The lights suddenly died. The ship was in darkness.
Rawson tore at the emergency switches, got them under control. A banshee wail sounded throughout the Star Flight. "Emergency! Emergency!"
In the darkness in back of him, Rawson heard the alligator bark of Underofficer Durk. "Ship out of control, eh? We're drifting, eh? See if your book learnin' 'll get yuh out o' this!"