He slapped one against a window to his right​ as he slaughtered two more associates. He elbowed a guy to his left while kicking a guy in front of him in the nuts. Everything was pure chaos for several seconds there. Adam ran six feet, then slapped a second stamp on a second window. He grabbed another associate to use as a human shield while at the same time killing an associate with a slam to the nose. He had to grab a second human shield because so many people shot at him. He ran another six feet to slap a third stamp to a window, dragging his two human shields along with him. Then,

     KA-BOOM! 

     The first of the three stamps detonated. The other two would follow suit in moments. 

​     Sorry guests, Adam thought.  

​     The halls and windows lining the Skymaster turned out to be pathetically thin, considering the fact that it was supposedly designed to traverse the harsh airlessness of space. In fact, after the windows shattered, the walls of the Skymaster buckled as the air inside rushed to get out. A gaping hole appeared a foot from where Adam stood. Two of Goldbody's associates flew out into space. They twitched for a single second, then stopped moving. 

     The hull began to repair itself immediately. Within two minutes, it would be like nothing had happened. 

​     Adam whistled. Boy, Goldbody's got some real technology in this place, he thought. 

​     Then, Adam himself got sucked into space. 

​     He felt himself get wrapped up by his emergency spacesuit as quick as an airbag being deployed. Quicker, actually, much quicker. 

​     Damn! "Claudia, I'm out of the Skymaster. What now?"

​     "I can't help you, darling," Claudia said. "I've got you charted, but I can't reach you. You've got to find some way to get to me."

     "Well, okay, but..." How exactly was he going to do that? 

     The answer came from the Skymaster itself.

     Adam almost cried from relief.

     It was two of Goldbody's associates, and they were both decked out in real state-of-the-art spacesuits.

​     And they had weapons. 

     They came after him. Obviously, they planned to kill him. 

​     That was so damned cute. 

     The best thing was that they had jet packs on their backs. 

     Although, of course, they didn't really have jets on their backs, but, whatever it was they had back there, it sent them scooting through space at a rapid clip. 

     They fired their weapons as they neared him. A chunk of the blasted hull drifted within a foot of him. He went to reach for it, but he found that was impossible. ​Adam himself, of course, didn't have a jet pack, not right then anyway, and, without propulsion, floating in the nothingness of space...something could be a quarter inch from the end of his fingertips and he wouldn't be able to reach it. As luck would have it, though, another chunk of debris from the Skymaster collided with the first piece, and it floated right into Adam's hand, and just in the nick of time, too. It was ray guns that these associates had. A blast hit the Skymaster chunk that Adam used as a shield. The force of it sent Adam flying back. 

     "How much time do I have left?" 

     "Eight minutes. Nine tops."

​     "And where are you exactly? Where's my Stargod?"

​     "I'm right behind you, Adam, or below you, or whatever. I'm sticking right with you."

     "Good." 

     "But I still don't think you're going to make it." 

​     "Just watch." 

     Goldbody's two associates weren't particularly well trained at navigating through space, and, coming at Adam, they totally missed and shot right past him. Adam grabbed one of them by the ankle, and now both Adam and the associate went spinning end over end. The other associate shot at them both with his ray gun. Adam twisted so that the burning slash of the ray caught the associate Adam held rather than Adam himself. The ray caught the assoiate right at the neck and sheared his skull completely from his body. Adam knew there wouldn't be splattering blood. Instead, the skull just kind of turned and spun and floated away by itself. 

     Adam reached for the guy's jet pack. How was it controlled, from inside the suit or...

​     The control was still in the dead associate's palm.

     Adam turned the headless guy around like he was headed for Earth, then pushed the plunger with the guy's thumb still on it as far as it would go.

     Adam and the corpse took off. 

     "Adam," Claudia said. "You have less than four minutes."

​     "I know. I know. I'm getting to you as fast as I can." The other associates, the Skymaster, all of it, got very small very quick as Adam, using the dead man's jet pack, rocketed for Earth. 

     Adam felt his own spacesuit, such as it was, begin to fray. 

     All of a sudden, it got just the slightest bit hard to breathe. 

     Along with everything else, he was running out of air.

     Damn!

     "Have you spotted me yet, Claudia?" he asked. "How far away am I?"

​     "I can see you. If you hold out for sixty more..."

     "I'll just pretend I'm underwater." 

                                                  CONTINUE