Death Wish

The space freighter Queen Dierdre was a great, squat, pockmarked vessel of the Earth-Mars run and she never gave anyone a bit of trouble. That should have been sufficient warning to Mr. Watkins, her engineer. Watkins was fond of saying that there are two kinds of equipment - the kind that fails bit by bit, and the kind that fails all at once. Compared with a spaceship in distress, going to hell in a handbasket is roomy and slow!