Thorn tried, to clutch a stanchion and pull himself up, as the control-room rocked wildly around him. He heard the triumphant shout of the bald Venusian clinging to the controlpanel.
"We're through, John! We did it!"
Thorn's ship had crashed in between the other two, forcing its way through and breaking the grapple-lines.
"Blast away, Lana!” yelled Thorn into the audio. “You're clear now!"
Like a streak of light, the silvery cruiser of the pirate girl shot upward. And with it cometed the battered Cauphul, and old Stilicho Keene's black ship. The other pirate craft that had tried to help Lana counterattack the League cruisers had been riddled to helpless wrecks by the heavy fire of the enemy.
But the main body of the pirate fleet had had time to cut away from their prey during the few minutes of the furious fight below. They were shooting out like startled hawks of space, joining Lana Cain's cruiser and the other two as they sped upward.
"Up to the Zone!” pealed the girl's voice from the audio.
Rising together as they soared through space, the pirate ships streaked upward through the vault. Hot after them raced the League cruisers, which now outnumbered the pirates.
"What in the devil's name's going on?” roared Gunner Welk's voice. “That crash strained our sides! It looks down here as though the ship will crumple any minute."
"If we can get into the Zone, we can lose those cruisers,” Sual Av was muttering. “If she'll just keep going until then!"
Thorn could hear the Cauphul groaning and creaking beneath the fierce thrust of her blazing rocket-tubes. The hull of the ship, weakened by shell-fire and badly strained by the side-swiping collision, threatened to crumple up without notice.
The pirate ships could not match the heavily armed League cruisers in fire-power. But one thing the ships of the Companions of Space did have, and that was speed. They were drawing slowly away from the hotly pursuing cruisers as they rushed upward.
It was a wild yet thrilling scene to John Thorn's eyes! The black vault of abysmal space around them tapestried with countless blazing stars, the blinding flares of atom-shells bursting like exploding lightning, the raving flame of proton-fire from pursued and pursuing ships, and the vast, vague cloud of light-flecks of the Zone stretching above.
They were thundering up into the Zone now, Lana Cain's silver ship leading, curving sharply to avoid the meteor-swarm directly above. But the League cruisers were pursuing them into the vast wilderness of debris.
"Scatter!” came the girl's sharp order from the audio. “We'll rendezvous at Turkoon!"
"That finishes us, John,” said Sual Av bitterly. “We don't know the wave code. We can't navigate this damned jungle."
But hard on the heels of his words came a quick call from the girl.
"Planeteers! Keep your ship with mine!"
The pirate ships scattered in all directions, like a frightened flock of wild fowl. Darting away through the swarms and planetoids, navigating by means of the coded wave-signals from the projectors on every swarm and asteroid, they melted away.
The League fleet could not hope to pursue all those diverging ships through the wilderness of debris in which they were perfectly at home. But a dozen League cruisers followed purposefully after Lana's silver ship and the Planeteers’ crippled craft as they raced away through the Zone in a counter-sunwise direction.
"Damn them, they must have recognized Lana's ship and they're determined to catch her!” Sual Av exclaimed.
Gunner Welk's towering spacesuited figure came thrusting hastily into the control-room.
"John, the compartment walls are cracking down there!” exclaimed the Mercurian. “If they—"
A thunderous explosion from below interrupted his words. Instantly, the Cauphul's acceleration decreased, the roar of its rocket-tubes sharply diminished.
"One power-chamber has exploded!” yelled an engineer's voice from the interphone.
"We're sunk!” the big Mercurian cried.
"No, Lana's coming around!” John Thorn exclaimed.
They had been rushing close to the coast of a far-flung swarm, with the pirate girl's silver ship just ahead, the League cruisers a fair distance behind, when the explosion had occurred. Now the silvery Lightning was darting back around to their side.
"I'm standing by to take you on!” Lana cried from the audio-speaker. “Hurry!"
"Break open the portside door to abandon ship!” Thorn yelled into the interphone. “Cut the tubes, Sual, and, come on!"
The Planeteers hastened down out of the control-room through the wrecked ship. The motley crew of the Cauphul, all in suits and helmets like the three comrades, had got the round door on the portside open. There was no air now in the whole ship, and its walls and beams were sagging and cracking ominously as it floated on in space under inertia.
Up to the side of the Cauphul drove the Lightning. There was no time to hook on with magnetic grapples or run out catwalks, for the League cruisers were coming up along the edge of the great meteor swarm in hot pursuit. The Lightning's starboard door was open, the silvery ship keeping even with the wreck only a few yards away.
"Jump for it!” Thorn yelled to his crew. “Hurry!"
Across the gap between ships shot space-suited figures like human projectiles, leaping toward the big open door of the Lightning. Those who missed the door grabbed lines that had been flung out, and were hauled in like floundering fish.
There was a thundering crash of metal as a whole section of the Cauphul's stern collapsed. The wreck sagged drunkenly in space, and the League cruisers were racing closer.
"This is getting a little too hot for even the Planeteers!” laughed Sual Av as he leaped.
Gunner Welk followed, and John Thorn jumped last. He felt himself hurtle floatingly across the gap toward the open door of the Lightning, infinity below and above him. Then he hit the edge of the door and a hand grasped his arm and pulled him in.
Instantly the Lightning sprang forward with renewed acceleration as its stern tubes blasted. The door was ground shut.
Thorn and his two comrades climbed to the control-room. When he entered it, a glance showed him that they were now pulling steadily away from their pursuers.
Lana Cain, her slender figure bulky in space-suit and helmet, was leaning beside the Jovian pilot at the firingkeys. She was listening intently to the constant buzzing from the section of the panel that received the navigation wave-signals.
"Turn ninety degrees outward, and fifteen degrees upward, Rimil!” exclaimed the girl. “That'll take us between swarms where they won't follow for long."
The Lightning curved sharply, shot between the two vast clouds of dangerous debris.
Looking back through the rear window of the bulging control-room, Thorn saw two of the pursuing League cruisers glow red and fall out of line. They had been meteor-struck. Trying to cut across after their quarry without aid of the wave-code navigation signals, they had blundered into the edge of one swarm.
The other League ships slackened speed, and tried to grope their way ahead. But the Lightning, dashing on at full speed and then changing course abruptly to cut up across a “family” of whirling, planetoids, soon lost them from sight.
"Off suits. We're safe from them now!” Lana called into the interphone.
Thorn and his two comrades divested themselves with relief of their suits and helmets, as the girl did likewise.
Lana turned toward the Planeteers. The girl's bronze-gold hair was tossed in disorder, her face flushed, her dark blue eyes blazing with excitement. There was something vital and dynamic about her, and there was a throbbing, eager emotion in her eyes as she faced Thorn, impulsively holding out her hand.