when he started to say "I'm o.k." when he
suddenly screamed.
110 "What is it?" screamed Little Star. "What is it? General?"
111 "I'm all right," North stammered. "I'm all right. I just came in
the ship. There's a body hanging in the wreckage right in front of me."
112 Little Star understood. It is an awful start to come upon a person
who died of sudden exposure to the vacuum of space. It's not a pretty
sight. A thought suddenly entered the young Officer's mind. "My God,
General, don't get sick! Don't throw up!"
113 North was more than willing to take his advice, but had to fight to
do it. He worked his way passed the body through the twisted rubble and
found the emergency unit that was keeping the crewmen alive. It was
nearly drained.
114 It took him more than an hour to retrieve the necessary equipment
from other units and get this one fully functional. He had been working
very hard in open space for almost four hours, and he could not stop.
If these four had been so close to death, any other survivors might be
worse off.
115 He continued his search. Near to what was left of the front of the
ship he found two other men still alive in a service compartment. They
had enough air to hold them for several hours which gave North time to
work on a plan. It would be tricky but he was quite sure he could carry
it out.
116 He went back to the air lock for Flaming Cloud and his companion.
They were patiently waiting. "You're going to be hearing a lot of noise,"
explained North, "but don't worry about it. I'm going to cut this airlock, and
use it as a shuttle to carry you and the others back to the ship. I'll
work for a while, then I have to go back to refresh my power and air.
But don't