Stumbling and staggering, Henry reached Vicenzo, who struggled under a bunk, a plastic packing case, part of a pump, and a bundle of tubing. Henry took the electric cable from his belt and formed a loop. He drew the loop tight around Vicenzo's arms. Vicenzo pushed the case off his legs and tried to stand. Henry flipped the cable around and around Vicenzo and bound his arms to his sides.
"Get him, Aziz!" Vicenzo called in rage. Henry tied Vicenzo's feet together and cut off the remaining cable with his snips.
Aziz had grasped the frame of the airvalve and was trying to slide the door open. Henry selected a battered oxygen tank from the heap, lifted it in both hands, and hurled it. The missile caught Aziz across the back of his spacesuit. He fell into the jumbled equipment on the floor. Quickly, Henry repeated his looping and tying operations. Then he sat on an empty trunk and tried to slow his rapid breathing.
"Le'me go, Henry!" Aziz demanded, somewhat dazed. "We're fallin'!" Henry opened the switch on the spacesuit's loudspeaker.
The bunk in the wall that had been the ceiling unfolded, and Ranjit's wrinkled face peeped through the exposed hatch. "What a mess!" he chuckled. "Things wasn't fastened down like they should of been. Of course, it never needed to be before. I never knowed—"
"How are you standing the gravity?" Henry panted.
"It's just two-tenths G," Ranjit said. "Hang on, and I'll take us back to no weight. This old sweeper's spinning like a top."
Ranjit's head withdrew. Henry tried to find a handhold in the pile of material. His feet left the tangle. Accompanied by assorted items, including the bound figures of Vicenzo and Aziz, he floated in the air.
Twisting, Henry placed his feet on the magnetized deck. Objects containing steel settled around him. He pulled Vicenzo and Aziz down, and, as Vicenzo began to curse in ancient terms, silenced his loudspeaker also.
Joachim appeared clutching his stomach. "I shall wait in my ship for the fuel," he gagged, dodging a floating chest, "away from this criminal madhouse!"