then kevin grasped the hideous truth. there were not enough rocket pistols to bring the men to the full ship and return with any reserve to guide the projectile.

"get back!" he shouted. "save the pistols. we're coming in."

behind them their only chance for life continued serenely upward into a new orbit. there, 900 miles above the earth, it would revolve forever with more fuel in its tanks than it needed.

fuel that would have saved the lives of 90 desperate men.

by leaving it, morrow and anderson had bought perhaps 30 more minutes of life before the space station became a huge meteor riding its fiery path to death in the the upper reaches of the atmosphere.

both suffered the guilt of enormous betrayal. the fact that they could have done no more did not erase it.

frantically, kevin flipped over in his mind the possible tools that still could be brought to bear to lift the space station above its flaming destruction. but his tools were the stone axe of a primitive man trying to hack his way out of a forest fire.