"The end of you, Earth-man."
But, thank God, it wasn't. Abruptly, by some fortunate chance I was able to snatch my knife from its belt-sheath. It ripped into Mokk's fabric. I was aware of a little flash of deranged electricity; his suit deflated. Ghastly human explosion—every tiny cell of his body bursting with its inner pressure. The rush of released, dissipating expanding air from his suit sprayed bursting gore upon me. Gore, and the noisome pink-white foam which had been his flesh.
I shoved the ghastly thing away; saw myself now seemingly upon my back, grotesquely struggling to turn erect with the X-87 hanging diagonally some twenty feet away. Nina was still clinging to its side, with the volplane gliding near her. She dove, and Blake hauled her aboard. And then he shoved to me; gripped me at last.
"All right," I gasped. "Good enough, Jim—you sit here with Nina—"
At the bow of our fragile little craft, I set the gravity plates for an intensification of Earth's attraction. I set them to the fullest of their power. For a moment we slowly turned over, with all the Heavens, the Moon, Earth and the little X-87 in a dizzying swing. Then we steadied, with the Earth ahead of us.
Clinging, I shoved myself back in the canoe-like volplane, to Nina and Blake. Touched them. "We're starting. See the ship?"
The little vessel, close behind and above us, was slowly receding.
"But they'll discover us!" young Blake murmured. "They have telescopes—they'll discover us—and the X-87 can catch us easily."
"Maybe," I muttered. "Maybe not—"