Spaceship medic

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The run from the Lunar Station to Mars is a piece of cake. The passengers take the rocket buses up to the interplanetary spacer, the Johannes Kepler, and settle down for ninety-two days of fun and food, sociability and relaxation. All one hundred and forty-seven of the passengers were enjoying themselves, in just this way, on the thirtieth day out from Earth.

That was when the meteorite hit the spaceship head on. Almost dead centre.

The automatic lasers did not stop it. The outer, armoured hull barely slowed it down. It ripped its way through eighteen different compartments before burying itself deep in the cargo in the centre of the drum-shaped ship.

On its destructive course it passed through the main control-room, killing Captain Kardyd and twelve other officers and men. Sixteen passengers also died, in sudden exploding agony, and the main water tank was ruptured.

It was very bad indeed.

Lieutenant Donald Chase was stretched out on a bunk in the sick bay when the meteorite hit, reading a thick book entitled Bone Deterioration in Low Gravity Environments. The metal frame of his bunk vibrated, shaking the book, and for a few instants he ignored it.

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