"Diane!"
And then a stranger thing happened. There came a sudden, tender little cry from Helen MacDowell. A flurry of movement. And then she was across the room, was in the arms of Hank Cleaver! And she didn't seem to care that her words carried to all of us.
"You've failed, Hank! But I don't care. I don't care. It's too late to pretend now that I hate you. For I don't. I love you, Hank...."
Then everything happened at once. My eyes leaped back from the Helen-Hank tableau to the visiplate, as abruptly there came a crashing explosion from the bowels of the ship. I saw the planet before us now within—it seemed—but inches! There was a high, tortured screaming in my ears. The grind of motors, the pounding of massive drums, a scream ripping from the throat of Hallowell, a muffled curse from Cap Hanson—
Then a horrible, wrenching shock. I felt my body lifting, floating, hurtling across the floor! Something fell sprawling upon me, glass splintered, a dozen voices cried out at once.
And everything was black, and there was a dead and sickly pressure across my body—
—from the center of which came a muffled voice. The voice of Bert Donovan.
"Well, I'll be triple and everlastingly damned to a fare-you-well!"
I kicked, and he wriggled. I kicked again and he moved.
I said, "If you'll get off my head, you damned fool, maybe I can see what's going on!"