CHAPTER 18Space Wreck
Belem said, “No, we’re not going out. We’re in the transmitter of an abandoned space-ship around Centaurus II. We located it from our laboratory years ago. We know a good many of these out-of-the-way transmitters, useful in cases just like this. I can’t set the controls to take us directly to my headquarters or Paynter could simply read the dials and follow us as he did from the Swan Garden.”
I found I was breathing hard. The Mechandroid said we’d have to hurry. “We transported several cubic yards of air with us but that won’t last long. Here, let me—”
I watched my hands move deftly on the corroded dials. I had one dizzying moment in which I thought of the terrible deeps of space all around us, the dead ship circling an alien star-group while our last air seeped ou
