Technical Error - Hal Clement

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Technical error by hal Clement Part one. Seven space suited
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human beings stood motionless at the edge of the little valley.
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Around them was a bare, jagged plain of basalt, lit
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sharply by the distant sun and unwavering stars. A dozen
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miles behind, hidden by the abrupt curvature of the asteroid's surface,
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was a half fused heap of metal that had brought
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them here. And in front of them, almost at their
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feet in the shallow grooves scraped by a meteor ages before,
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was an object which caused more than one of those
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men to doubt his sanity. Before them lay the ship,
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whose heat ruined wreckage had been left behind them only
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minutes ago. Perfectly holed in every part, seven pairs of
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eyes swept it for men to end, picking out and
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recognizing each line, driving and steering jet pits at each end,
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six bulging observations ports around its middle rows of smallers,
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their transparent panes gleaming obviously intact in the sunlight. The
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silvery prolate hull itself all forced themselves on the mines
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that sought desperately to reject them as the impossibilities. The
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Jansar was gone. They had fled from the thread of
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its disordered atomic engines, watched it glow when melts, and
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finally cool again, a nearly formless heap of slag. So
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what was this? None of them even thought of a
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sister ship The Jansar had none. Spaceships are not mass
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production articles. Only a few hundred exist as yet, and
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each of those is a specialized, designed to order machine.
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A spaceman of any standing can recognize at a glance
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by shape alone any ship built on Earth, and no
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other intelligent race than man inhabits saul system. Grant was
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the first to throw off the spell. He glanced up
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at the overhead and figured. Then he shook his head.
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We haven't circled, I'll swear, he said, after a moment.
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We're a quarter of the way around this world from
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where we left the ship if I have allowed right
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for rotation. Besides, it wasn't in a valley. The tension vanished,
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as though someone had snapped a switch. That's right, grunted Cray,
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the stocky engine man. The place was practically flat except
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for a lot of spiky rocks, and anyway, no one
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but a nut could think that that was the Jansar.
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After leaving her the way we did. I wonder who
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left this buggy here? Why do you assume it has
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been left? The query came in a quiet voice from
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Jack Prebble, the youngest person present. It appears uninjured. I
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see no reason to suppose that the crew is not
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waiting for us to enter at this moment. If they
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have seen Grant shook his head, that ship might have
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been here for years. Probably has, since none of us
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can place it. The crew may be there, but I
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fear not alive. It seems unlikely that this craft has
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been registered in the lifetime of any of us. I
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doubt that it would have remained here unless it were disabled.
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But you must all have realized by now that it
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holds probably our only chance of life. Even if it
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won't fly, there may be a transmitter in repair. We
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would better investigate. The men followed the captain as he
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took a long, slow leap down the slope. Little enthusiasm
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showed in the faces behind the helmet masks. Even young
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Prebble had accepted the fact that death was almost inevitable.
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At another time, they might have been eager and curious,
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even in the face of a spectacle as depressing as
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a derel it usually is now. They merely followed silently.
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Here probably a similar group of men had No one
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knew how long ago faced a feint identical to theirs,
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and they were about to see what had befallen those others.
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No one saw humor in the situation, but a wryse
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smile was twisting more than one face. As the group
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stopped beneath the circular entrance port, more than one thought
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of the possible irony of their being taken for a
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rescue crew. Grant looked at the port twenty five feet
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above their heads. Any of them could easily have jumped
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to it, but even that effort was not necessary, for
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a row of niches eight inches square and two deep
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provided a ladder to the rim. It was possible to
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cling to them, even on the lower curve of the hull,
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for they were deeply grooved around the inside edges. The
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captain found that his gauntlets could grip easily, and he
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made his way up the wall of metal, the others
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watching from below. Arriving at the port, he found that
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the niches formed a circle around it, and other rows
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of them extended over the hull in different directions. It
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was at the entrance, however, that he met the first
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of the many irregularities. The other saw him reach the
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port and stop as though looking around. Then he traveled
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entirely around it, stopped again, and began feeling the mirror
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like metal with his gloved hands. Finally, he called out, Cray,
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could you come up here please? If anyone can find
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the opening mechanism, you should. The engineer remained exactly where
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he was. Why should there be any he asked. The
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only reason we use it on our ships is habit.
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If the door opens inward, atmospheric pressure will hold it
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better than any lock. Try pushing. If the inner door
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is sealed, you shouldn't have much trouble. The lock chamber
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will be exhausted. Probably, Grant got a grip near the
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edge of the door and pushed. There was no result.
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He moved part way round the rim and tried again,
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with the same lack of success. After testing it several
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more points, he spoke again, No luck, I can't even
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tell which side the hinge is on, or even if
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there is a hinge, Cray, you and a couple of
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others had better come up and give a hand at pushing.
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Maybe there's a trace of air in the inner chamber,
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Craig grunted, If there's anywhere near an atmosphere's pressure, it'll
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take tons to budge the door. It's twelve feet across.
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But this time he began to climb the hull. Ruyden
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probably the most powerful one present, and a chemist named
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Stevenson followed him. The four men grouped themselves about the
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forward edge of the port, their feet braced on the
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door itself and hands firmly gripping the climbing niches, and
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all four tensed their bodies, and the door still refused
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to budge. They rested a moment and followed Grant to
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the opposite side of the metal disk. This time their
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efforts produced results. The pressure on the other side of
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the valve must have been only a few millimeters of mercury,
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enough to give four or five hundred pounds resistance to
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an outside thrust at the edge opposite the hinge. When
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the door opened a crack, that pressure vanished almost instantly,
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and the four men shot feet first through the suddenly
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yawning opening. Grant and Stevenson checked the plunge by catching
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the edge of the port frame. The other two disappeared
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into the inner darkness, and an instant later the shock
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of their impact upon some hard surface was felt by
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those touching the hull. The captain and the chemist dropped
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to the floor of the lock and entered prebble leapt
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for the open door, followed by Cyrel and mckechrn. All
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three judged accurately sailing through the opening, checking their flight
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against the ceiling, and landing feet down on the floor,
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where they found the others standing with belt lights in
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their hands. The sun was on the far side of
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the ship, and the chamber was lighted dimly by reflection
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from the rocks outside, but the corridors of the vessel
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themselves must be dark. The inner valve of the air
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lock was open, and had apparently been so from the beginning.
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Cray and Ruyden had shot through it and brought up
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against the farther wall of a corridor running parallel to
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the ship's long axis. They were both visible standing back
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to back, sweeping the corridor in both directions with their lights.
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Grant took a step that carried him over to them,
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motioning the others to remain where they were, and added
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his light to those already in action. To the right.
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As one entered it, the corridor extended almost to the
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near end of the ship, the bow, as the men
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thought of it, for no good reason. In another direction,
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it ran about ten yards and opened into a large chamber, which,
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if this craft resembled the Jansar as closely within as
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it did without, was probably the control room. At least
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it was just about amidships. Smaller doors opened at intervals
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along the hallway. Some were open, the majority were closed.
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Nothing moved anywhere. Come on, said Grant. Finally he walked
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toward the central room and paused on the threshold, the
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others at his heels. The floor they were walking on
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continued in the form of a catwalk. The chamber they
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were entering occupied the full interior of the hull. At
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this point it was brightly lighted, for it was this
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compartment that possessed the six great viewports equally spaced around
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its walls, and the sun shone brightly through these. The
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men extinguished their own lights. Cray looked about him and
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shook his head slowly. I still think I must be
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dreaming about to wake up on our own ship, he remarked.
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This looks more and more like home. Sweet home. Grant frowned.
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Not to me, he replied, this control layout is the
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first serious difference I've seen. You wouldn't notice that, of course,
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spending all your life with the engines. It might be
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a good idea for you to see if the drive
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on this ship is enough like ours for you to
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puzzle it out, and whether there's a chance of repairing it.
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I'll look over this board for signs of a transmitter.
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After all, the bazaar shouldn't be too far away. Why
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shouldn't I be able to understand the drive, retorted Craig.
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It should be like ours, only a little more primitive.
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Depending on how long this boat's been here. Grant shot
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him an amazed glance. Do you still think this is
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a terrestrial ship and has been here only a few decades?
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He asked, Sure any evidence otherwise? Grant pointed to the
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floor beneath their feet. All looked down, and for the
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first time noticed that they left footprints in a thin,
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even layer of dust that coated the corridor floor. That
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means that the ship held its air for a longer
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time than I cared to think about, long enough, not
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only to reduce the various organic substances on board to dust,
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but at random currents to distribute it through the open spaces.
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Yet when we came the air was almost gone, leaked
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out through the joints and valves good as they were,
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so that there was not enough left to resist us.
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When we pushed a twelve foot piston against its pressure
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point one, the finger swung to the control board point two.
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He said nothing further, but all could see what he meant.
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The center of the control room was occupied by a
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thick walled hemisphere, a cup if you like, swung in gimbals,
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which permitted its flat side always to the uppermost with
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respect to the ship's line of net acceleration. The control
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board occupied the inner surface and upper edge of this cup.
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All around the circumference, and in the center of the
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assembly was the pilot's seat. If it could be called
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a seat. It was a dome shaped structure protruding from
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the floor about two feet five broad deep grooves were
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spaced equally about its sides, but did not quite reach
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the top. It looked somewhat like a jelly mold, and
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the one thing that could be stated definitely about its
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history was that no human being had ever sat in it.
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Cray absorbed this evident fact with a gulp, as though
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he had not shoot it sufficiently. The rest of the
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men stared silently at the seat. It was as though
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the ghost of the long dead pilot had materialized there
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and held their frozen attention overwrought imagination's picture him or
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strove to picture him as he might have looked, And
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they also tried to picture what emergency, what unexpected menace,
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had called upon him to leave the place where he
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had held sway to leave it forever. All those men
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were intelligent and highly trained, but more than one pair
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of eyes explored the corridor the human invaders had just used,
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and its mate stretching on from the other side of
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the control room. Cray swallowed again and broke the silence.
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I should be able to figure out the engines anyway,
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he said, if there are atomics at all like ours.
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After all, they had to do the same things we did,
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and they must have corresponding operations and parts. I hope
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you're right, Grant shrugged invisibly in the bulky suit. I
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don't expect to solve that board until you fix something
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and the pilot lights starts signaling if they have pilot lights.
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We'd all better get to work. Cray's regular assistance can
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help him. Mc hechorn had better stay with me and
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help on the board, and Preble and Stevenson can look
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over the ship. In general, their fields of specialty won't
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help much at our jobs, hop to it. He started
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across the catwalk toward the control board, with mc keechern
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trailing behind him. Stevenson and Prebble looked at each other.
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The younger man spoke together, or should we split up together?
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Decided the chemist. That way, one of us will probably
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see anything the other misses. It won't take much longer,
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and I doubt that there's much hurry for our job anyway.
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We'll follow Cray in company to whichever engine room they
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go to, and then work from that end to the other.
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All right, Preble nodded, and the two left the control room.
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The engineers had gone toward the bow, so called because
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the main entrance port was near that end, and the
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two general explorers follow. The others were not far ahead,
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and their lights were visible, so the two did not
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bother to use their own. Stevenson kept one hand on
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the right hand wall, and they strode confidently along in
239
00:15:12.600 --> 00:15:17.559
the semi darkness. After a short distance, the chemist's hand
240
00:15:17.639 --> 00:15:19.960
encountered the inner door of the airlock by which they
241
00:15:19.960 --> 00:15:23.360
had entered. It had been swung by the men all
242
00:15:23.399 --> 00:15:26.600
the way back against the wall, leaving both doors open,
243
00:15:26.840 --> 00:15:29.679
so that the light was a little better here. In
244
00:15:29.759 --> 00:15:32.159
spite of this, he did not see the object on
245
00:15:32.200 --> 00:15:35.399
the floor until his foot struck it, sending and gliding
246
00:15:35.399 --> 00:15:38.399
along the corridor with a metallic scraping sound that was
247
00:15:38.440 --> 00:15:41.480
easily transmitted through the middle of the floor and their suits.
248
00:15:43.240 --> 00:15:45.799
He found it a few feet away, and near it
249
00:15:45.960 --> 00:15:50.000
two more exactly similar objects. He picked them up, and
250
00:15:50.080 --> 00:15:54.440
the two men examined them curiously. They were thick oval rings,
251
00:15:54.720 --> 00:15:57.960
apparently of steel, with an inch or so of steel
252
00:15:58.039 --> 00:16:01.720
cable welded to one side of each. The free end
253
00:16:01.759 --> 00:16:03.919
of the cable seemed to have been sheared off by
254
00:16:03.960 --> 00:16:08.080
some sharp tool. Stevenson and Prebble looked at each other
255
00:16:08.360 --> 00:16:10.840
and both directed their lights on the floor about the
256
00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:15.519
inner portal of the airlock. At first, nothing else was noticeable,
257
00:16:16.200 --> 00:16:19.080
but after a moment they saw that the chemist's foot,
258
00:16:19.480 --> 00:16:22.440
just before striking the ring, had scraped a groove in
259
00:16:22.519 --> 00:16:25.120
a layer of dust much thicker than that over the
260
00:16:25.159 --> 00:16:29.120
rest of the floor. It was piled almost to the
261
00:16:29.159 --> 00:16:32.279
low sill of the valve and covered an area two
262
00:16:32.399 --> 00:16:36.720
or three feet in radius. Curiously, the men looked at
263
00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:39.399
the outer side of the sill and found a similar
264
00:16:39.440 --> 00:16:42.279
flat pile of dust covering even more of the floor.
265
00:16:43.639 --> 00:16:48.840
And near the edges of this layer were five more rings. These,
266
00:16:48.960 --> 00:16:52.919
examined closely, proved larger than the first ones, which had
267
00:16:52.960 --> 00:16:56.200
been just a little too small for an average human wrist,
268
00:16:56.480 --> 00:16:59.080
but like them, each had a short length of wire
269
00:16:59.159 --> 00:17:01.519
cable fused to work one side and cut off a
270
00:17:01.559 --> 00:17:05.519
short distance out. There was nothing else solid on the
271
00:17:05.559 --> 00:17:08.319
floor of the lock or the corridor, and no mark
272
00:17:08.359 --> 00:17:12.880
in the dust except that made by Stevenson's tow. Even
273
00:17:12.920 --> 00:17:16.079
the dust and rings were not very noticeable. The seven
274
00:17:16.160 --> 00:17:19.119
men had entered the ship through this lock without seeing them.
275
00:17:20.079 --> 00:17:23.480
Both men were sure they had some meaning, perhaps held
276
00:17:23.519 --> 00:17:26.000
a clue to the nature of the ship's former owners,
277
00:17:26.599 --> 00:17:30.599
but neither could decipher it. Prebble dropped the rings into
278
00:17:30.599 --> 00:17:33.000
a pocket of his spacesuit, and they headed down the
279
00:17:33.039 --> 00:17:36.960
corridor again on the track of the engineers. They caught
280
00:17:37.039 --> 00:17:39.200
up with them about one hundred and fifty feet from
281
00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:42.319
the control room. The three were standing in front of
282
00:17:42.359 --> 00:17:46.039
a heavy looking circular door set in a bulkhead which
283
00:17:46.079 --> 00:17:50.480
blocked off the passage at this point. It was not featureless,
284
00:17:50.519 --> 00:17:53.200
as the air locked doors had been, but had three
285
00:17:53.400 --> 00:17:56.279
four inch discs of darker metal set into it near
286
00:17:56.359 --> 00:17:59.920
the top, the bottom, and the left side. Each day
287
00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:03.480
had three holes half an inch in diameter and of
288
00:18:03.599 --> 00:18:07.559
uncertain depth, arranged in the form of an Isosceles triangle.
289
00:18:08.519 --> 00:18:11.240
The men facing it bore a baffled air, as though
290
00:18:11.279 --> 00:18:15.920
they had already tackled the problem of opening it. Is
291
00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:19.720
this your engine room, asked Prebble, as he and Stevenson
292
00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:23.279
stopped beside the others. It looks more like a pressure
293
00:18:23.319 --> 00:18:29.279
locked to me, you may be right, returned Craig gloomily.
294
00:18:30.359 --> 00:18:32.720
But there's nowhere else in this end of the ship
295
00:18:32.759 --> 00:18:35.960
where an engine room could be. And you remember there
296
00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:40.079
were jets at both ends. For some reason, they seemed
297
00:18:40.119 --> 00:18:43.200
to keep the room locked tight. And we don't even
298
00:18:43.279 --> 00:18:47.519
know whether the locks are key or combination. If it's combination,
299
00:18:47.880 --> 00:18:51.440
we might as well quit now. And if it's key,
300
00:18:51.839 --> 00:18:56.279
where is it? They look like the ends of big
301
00:18:56.319 --> 00:19:01.640
bolts to me? Suggested Stevenson, have you tried unscrewing them?
302
00:19:02.359 --> 00:19:07.640
Cray nodded. Ryden got that idea too. Take a closer
303
00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:10.079
look at them before you try turning the things, though,
304
00:19:10.920 --> 00:19:13.839
If you still feel ambitious, Royden will show you the
305
00:19:13.880 --> 00:19:18.119
best way to stick your fingers into the holes. Prebble
306
00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:21.480
and the chemist accepted the suggestion and examined the little
307
00:19:21.519 --> 00:19:26.480
disks at close range. Cray's meaning was evident. They were
308
00:19:26.519 --> 00:19:30.599
not circular as they had seemed at first glance. They
309
00:19:30.599 --> 00:19:34.839
presented a slightly elliptical cross section, and obviously could never
310
00:19:34.920 --> 00:19:38.480
be made to turn in their sockets. The lock theory
311
00:19:38.519 --> 00:19:43.599
seemed to remain unchallenged. That being granted, it behooved them
312
00:19:43.640 --> 00:19:46.599
to look for a key. There was no sense in
313
00:19:46.640 --> 00:19:50.160
toying with the combination idea. There was no hope whatever
314
00:19:50.240 --> 00:19:54.559
of solving even a simple combination without specialized knowledge, which
315
00:19:54.599 --> 00:19:59.559
is seldom acquired legally. They resolutely ignored the probability that
316
00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:02.400
the key, if any, was only to be found in
317
00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:05.640
the company of the original engineer, and set to work.
318
00:20:08.440 --> 00:20:14.559
End of Part one, Technical Error, Part two. Each of
319
00:20:14.599 --> 00:20:17.519
them took one of the nearby rooms and commenced going
320
00:20:17.559 --> 00:20:21.000
over it all the room doors proved to be unlocked,
321
00:20:21.039 --> 00:20:25.839
which helped. Some furniture varied, but little. Each chamber had
322
00:20:25.880 --> 00:20:28.640
two seats similar to that in the control room, and
323
00:20:28.720 --> 00:20:31.680
two articles which might at one time have been beds.
324
00:20:32.319 --> 00:20:35.400
Any mattress or other padding they had ever contained was
325
00:20:35.440 --> 00:20:39.440
now fine dust, and nothing save metal troughs large enough
326
00:20:39.440 --> 00:20:42.799
to hold a man lying at full length were left.
327
00:20:43.200 --> 00:20:46.640
There was also a desk like affair which contained drawers
328
00:20:46.720 --> 00:20:49.799
which opened easily and soundlessly, and was topped by a
329
00:20:49.839 --> 00:20:55.039
circular yard wide aluminum faced mirror. The drawers themselves contained
330
00:20:55.039 --> 00:20:58.720
a variety of objects, perhaps toilet articles, of which not
331
00:20:58.839 --> 00:21:02.200
one sufficiently resemble anything familiar to provide a clue to
332
00:21:02.240 --> 00:21:07.759
its original use. A dozen rooms were ransacked fruitlessly before
333
00:21:07.799 --> 00:21:12.119
the men reassembled in the corridor to exchange reports. One
334
00:21:12.200 --> 00:21:14.880
or two of them, hearing of the other's failure, returned
335
00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:18.720
to the search Prebble, Stevenson, and Serel strolled back to
336
00:21:18.799 --> 00:21:22.240
the door, which was barring their way. They looked at
337
00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:26.200
it silently for several moments. Then Serel began to speak.
338
00:21:27.759 --> 00:21:32.559
It doesn't make sense, he said, slowly. Why should you
339
00:21:32.680 --> 00:21:36.119
lock an engine room door if the motors have to
340
00:21:36.119 --> 00:21:39.000
be supervised all the time as ours do. It's a
341
00:21:39.039 --> 00:21:43.079
waste of time. If you grant that these creatures had
342
00:21:43.079 --> 00:21:45.640
their motors well enough designed to run without more than
343
00:21:45.680 --> 00:21:49.240
occasional inspection, it might be worthwhile to seal the door
344
00:21:49.240 --> 00:21:52.880
against an accidental blowoff. But I still wouldn't lock it.
345
00:21:53.839 --> 00:21:56.480
Of course, we don't know anything about their ideas of
346
00:21:56.519 --> 00:22:00.960
what was common sense, but I'd say that that door
347
00:22:01.039 --> 00:22:03.720
either isn't fastened at all and is putting up a
348
00:22:03.720 --> 00:22:06.720
bluff like the outer air lock valve, or else it's
349
00:22:06.759 --> 00:22:11.000
really sealed and would be opened by tools rather than keys.
350
00:22:11.799 --> 00:22:15.279
You may think that's quibbling, but it isn't. Keys you
351
00:22:15.359 --> 00:22:18.079
carry around with you and your pocket or on your belt.
352
00:22:18.839 --> 00:22:21.240
Tools have a place where you leave them and are
353
00:22:21.279 --> 00:22:25.039
supposed to stay there. Kid, if you were an engineer
354
00:22:25.440 --> 00:22:28.559
in the practice of unsealing this door every few days, perhaps,
355
00:22:28.640 --> 00:22:30.799
and needed something like a monkey wrench to do it with,
356
00:22:31.359 --> 00:22:35.000
where would you keep the monkey wrench? Prebble ignored the
357
00:22:35.039 --> 00:22:39.960
appellation and thought for a moment. Finally, he said, if
358
00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:43.640
I were fastening the door against intentional snooping, I keep
359
00:22:43.680 --> 00:22:46.960
the tool in my own quarters locked up. If as
360
00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:51.000
you suggested, it were merely a precaution against accident. I'd
361
00:22:51.000 --> 00:22:53.839
have a place for it. Neared the door here, wouldn't
362
00:22:53.839 --> 00:22:57.920
you say so? The machinist nodded and swept his lights
363
00:22:57.960 --> 00:23:01.599
slowly over the bulkheads around the door. Nothing showed but
364
00:23:01.680 --> 00:23:04.920
smooth metal, and he extended the search to the corridor walls.
365
00:23:04.960 --> 00:23:08.680
For several yards on both sides. The eye found nothing,
366
00:23:09.039 --> 00:23:13.319
but Sirrel was not satisfied. He returned to the edge
367
00:23:13.319 --> 00:23:16.000
of the door and began feeling over the metal, putting
368
00:23:16.039 --> 00:23:19.440
a good deal of pressure behind his hand. It was
369
00:23:19.480 --> 00:23:24.160
a slow process and took patience. The others watched, holding
370
00:23:24.200 --> 00:23:28.160
their lights to illuminate the operation. For several minutes, the
371
00:23:28.200 --> 00:23:31.400
suit radios were silent, those of the more distant men
372
00:23:31.440 --> 00:23:33.440
cut off by the metal walls of the rooms they
373
00:23:33.480 --> 00:23:36.680
were searching, and the three at the door prosecuting their
374
00:23:36.680 --> 00:23:41.799
investigation without speech. Sorel was looking for a wall cabinet,
375
00:23:42.039 --> 00:23:45.599
which did credit to his imagination. Such a thing seemed
376
00:23:45.599 --> 00:23:49.359
to him the last place to keep tools. He was
377
00:23:49.440 --> 00:23:52.799
doing his best to allow for the probably unorthodox ideas
378
00:23:52.839 --> 00:23:55.920
of the builders of the ship, reducing the problem as
379
00:23:55.960 --> 00:23:59.279
far as he could toward its practical roots. And hoping
380
00:23:59.319 --> 00:24:02.319
no physical or more psychological traits of the being he
381
00:24:02.440 --> 00:24:06.799
never expected to meet would invalidate his answers. As Prebble
382
00:24:06.839 --> 00:24:10.319
had said, a two used for only one specialized purpose,
383
00:24:10.559 --> 00:24:12.880
logically would be kept near the place in which it
384
00:24:12.920 --> 00:24:18.160
was used. The machinist turned out right, though not exactly
385
00:24:18.200 --> 00:24:21.319
as he had expected. He was still running his hands
386
00:24:21.359 --> 00:24:24.200
over the wall when Prebble remembered a standard type of
387
00:24:24.240 --> 00:24:28.279
motor control switch with which even he was familiar, and
388
00:24:28.400 --> 00:24:32.240
almost without thinking, he reached out, inserted his fingers in
389
00:24:32.279 --> 00:24:35.279
the three holes of one of the disks, and pulled outward.
390
00:24:36.240 --> 00:24:39.720
A triangular block, indistinguishable in color from the rest of
391
00:24:39.759 --> 00:24:43.920
the disk, slid smoothly out into his hand. The other
392
00:24:43.960 --> 00:24:46.359
two lights converged on it, and for a second or
393
00:24:46.400 --> 00:24:51.359
two there was silence. Then Syrel chuckled, You win, Jack,
394
00:24:51.799 --> 00:24:55.119
he admitted, I didn't carry my own reasoning far enough.
395
00:24:55.920 --> 00:25:00.759
Go ahead. Prebble examined the block of metal what had
396
00:25:00.799 --> 00:25:03.759
been the inner face was copper colored and bore three
397
00:25:03.759 --> 00:25:06.599
holes similar to those by which he had extracted it.
398
00:25:07.519 --> 00:25:09.480
There was only one other way to fit it into
399
00:25:09.559 --> 00:25:12.720
the disc. Again. He reversed it with the copper face
400
00:25:12.759 --> 00:25:17.440
outward and felt its slip snugly back into place. Sorell
401
00:25:17.519 --> 00:25:20.160
and Stevenson did the same with the upper and lower discs,
402
00:25:20.519 --> 00:25:25.039
which proved to contain similar blocks. Then they stood back,
403
00:25:25.400 --> 00:25:29.759
wondering what happened next. They were still waiting when Kray
404
00:25:29.839 --> 00:25:33.799
and Ruyden rejoined them. The former saw instantly what had
405
00:25:33.839 --> 00:25:37.160
been done to the door and started to speak. Then
406
00:25:37.319 --> 00:25:40.559
he took a second and closer look, and without saying
407
00:25:40.599 --> 00:25:44.000
a word, reached up, inserted three fingers in the holes
408
00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:46.839
and the copper triangles of the block face, and began
409
00:25:46.920 --> 00:25:51.279
to unscrew the disc. It was about five inches thick
410
00:25:51.680 --> 00:25:55.480
and finally came out in his hands. He stared doubtfully
411
00:25:55.480 --> 00:25:57.400
at it, and took a huge pair of her near
412
00:25:57.480 --> 00:26:00.000
calipers from the engineer's kid at his side, and measured
413
00:26:00.079 --> 00:26:04.680
the plug along several diameters. It was perfectly circular, to
414
00:26:04.839 --> 00:26:08.559
within the limit of error of his instrument. He looked
415
00:26:08.599 --> 00:26:10.960
at the others at length and spoke with a note
416
00:26:10.960 --> 00:26:15.359
of bewilderment. I could have sworn this thing was elliptical
417
00:26:15.400 --> 00:26:18.720
when we first examined it. The hole still is, if
418
00:26:18.759 --> 00:26:22.200
you'll look. He nodded toward the threaded opening from which
419
00:26:22.200 --> 00:26:25.599
the disc had come. I saw the line where it
420
00:26:25.680 --> 00:26:27.839
joined the door seemed a good deal wider at the
421
00:26:27.880 --> 00:26:31.519
top and bottom, but I'm sure it fitted tightly all around.
422
00:26:31.599 --> 00:26:37.839
Before Crell and Ruyden nodded agreement, evidently reversing the inset
423
00:26:37.880 --> 00:26:41.599
block had in some fashion changed the shape of the disc.
424
00:26:42.720 --> 00:26:45.119
Cray tried to pull the block out again, but it
425
00:26:45.200 --> 00:26:48.440
resisted his efforts, and he finally gave up with a shrug.
426
00:26:49.640 --> 00:26:52.559
The men quickly unscrewed the other discs, and Ryden leaned
427
00:26:52.559 --> 00:26:56.799
against the heavy door. It swung silently inward, and four
428
00:26:56.799 --> 00:26:59.519
of the men instantly stepped through to swing their lights
429
00:26:59.559 --> 00:27:03.599
around the new compartment. Cray alone remained at the door,
430
00:27:03.920 --> 00:27:08.519
puzzling over the hard yet plastic metal object. The simple
431
00:27:08.680 --> 00:27:13.680
is not always obvious. Grant and mckechrn in the control
432
00:27:13.799 --> 00:27:17.240
room were having troubled as well. They had approached the
433
00:27:17.240 --> 00:27:20.400
control cup along the catwalk, and the Captain had vaulted
434
00:27:20.440 --> 00:27:24.000
into its center without difficulty, and he might just as
435
00:27:24.039 --> 00:27:28.440
well have remained outside. The control buttons were obvious enough,
436
00:27:28.759 --> 00:27:30.880
though they did not project from the metal in which
437
00:27:30.880 --> 00:27:35.599
they were set. They occurred always in pairs, probably an
438
00:27:35.640 --> 00:27:39.240
on and off for each operation, and beside each pair
439
00:27:39.400 --> 00:27:43.359
were two little transparent discs that might have been monitor lights.
440
00:27:44.160 --> 00:27:48.160
All were dark. Sometimes the pairs of buttons were alone,
441
00:27:48.200 --> 00:27:50.720
sometimes they were in groups of any number of up
442
00:27:50.720 --> 00:27:55.279
to eighteen or twenty. Each group was isolated from its neighbors,
443
00:27:55.680 --> 00:27:58.599
and they extended completely around the foot wide rim of
444
00:27:58.640 --> 00:28:01.480
the cup, so that it was not possible to see
445
00:28:01.480 --> 00:28:05.359
them all at once. But the thing that bothered Grant
446
00:28:05.359 --> 00:28:07.920
them most was the fact that not a single button,
447
00:28:08.079 --> 00:28:11.119
light or group was accompanied by a written label of
448
00:28:11.160 --> 00:28:14.480
any sort. He would not have expected to be able
449
00:28:14.480 --> 00:28:17.119
to read any such writing, but there had been the
450
00:28:17.200 --> 00:28:19.960
vague hope that control labels might have been matched with
451
00:28:20.079 --> 00:28:23.559
similar labels on the machines or charts. If the other
452
00:28:23.599 --> 00:28:28.160
men found any of either, it was peculiar, for there
453
00:28:28.200 --> 00:28:31.720
were in all several hundred buttons, and many of the
454
00:28:31.720 --> 00:28:35.400
groups could easily have been mistaken for each other. He
455
00:28:35.480 --> 00:28:38.319
put this thought into words, and mc keechrn frowned behind
456
00:28:38.319 --> 00:28:43.079
his helmet mass before replying, According to Crage's logic, why
457
00:28:43.079 --> 00:28:47.559
should they be labeled? He remarked, Finally, do we allow
458
00:28:47.599 --> 00:28:49.599
any one to pilot a ship if he doesn't know
459
00:28:49.640 --> 00:28:53.400
the board blindfolded. We do label ours, of course, on
460
00:28:53.519 --> 00:28:56.319
the theory that an inexperienced man might have to handle
461
00:28:56.359 --> 00:29:00.640
them in an emergency, but that self deception. I've never
462
00:29:00.680 --> 00:29:03.000
heard of any but a first rank pilot bringing a
463
00:29:03.039 --> 00:29:07.279
ship through an emergency, labeling controls as a carryover from
464
00:29:07.359 --> 00:29:12.680
the family auto an airplane. There's something in that, admitted
465
00:29:12.680 --> 00:29:17.039
the captain. There's also the possibility that this board is
466
00:29:17.119 --> 00:29:21.160
labeled in a fashion we can't make out. Suppose the
467
00:29:21.279 --> 00:29:24.640
letters or characters are etched very faintly into that metal,
468
00:29:24.920 --> 00:29:27.519
which isn't polished, you'll notice, and were meant to be
469
00:29:27.599 --> 00:29:31.960
read by, say, a delicate sense of touch. I don't
470
00:29:31.960 --> 00:29:35.440
believe that myself, but it's a possibility one we can't
471
00:29:35.519 --> 00:29:39.119
check since we can't remove our suits to feel. The
472
00:29:39.160 --> 00:29:41.440
fact that there are no obvious lights for this board
473
00:29:41.680 --> 00:29:45.359
lends it some support. They couldn't have depended on sunlight
474
00:29:45.440 --> 00:29:50.000
all the time. In either case, fooling around here at
475
00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:53.000
this stage may do more harm than good, pointed out
476
00:29:53.079 --> 00:29:56.240
mc keechorn. We'll have to wait until someone gets a
477
00:29:56.279 --> 00:29:59.759
machine identified and see if tappering with it produces any results.
478
00:29:59.759 --> 00:30:05.880
Here Grant's helmet nodded agreement. I never had much hope
479
00:30:05.920 --> 00:30:09.480
of actually starting the ship, he said, since it seems
480
00:30:09.559 --> 00:30:13.039
unlikely that anything but mechanical damage of a serious nature
481
00:30:13.079 --> 00:30:16.440
could have stranded it here. But I did have some
482
00:30:16.599 --> 00:30:21.799
hopes from the communicators. There must be some. Maybe they
483
00:30:21.839 --> 00:30:26.599
didn't talk, remarked the navigator. If that's your idea of humor,
484
00:30:26.799 --> 00:30:31.200
maybe you'd better not yourself, growled Grant. He vaulted back
485
00:30:31.240 --> 00:30:34.400
to the catwalk and moroseie led the way forward to
486
00:30:34.440 --> 00:30:37.960
see if the engineers or freelance investigators had had any look.
487
00:30:39.640 --> 00:30:43.440
Mckegern followed, regretting the remark, which must have jarred the
488
00:30:43.440 --> 00:30:48.079
commander's optimism at an unfortunate time. He tried to think
489
00:30:48.119 --> 00:30:51.440
of something helpful to say, but couldn't, so he wisely
490
00:30:51.559 --> 00:30:56.759
kept quiet. Halfway to the bow, they met Preble and Stevenson,
491
00:30:57.160 --> 00:31:00.359
who had satisfied themselves that the others could do in
492
00:31:00.359 --> 00:31:03.799
the engine room and were continuing their own general examination
493
00:31:03.960 --> 00:31:07.200
of the ship. They gave the officers a brief report
494
00:31:07.240 --> 00:31:10.400
on events forward, showed them the metal rings found by
495
00:31:10.400 --> 00:31:13.160
the airlock, and went on aft to find some means
496
00:31:13.160 --> 00:31:16.799
of visiting the corridors which presumably existed above and below
497
00:31:16.839 --> 00:31:20.519
the main one. The control room seemed the logical place
498
00:31:20.559 --> 00:31:23.960
to look first, though neither had noticed any other openings
499
00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:27.079
from it when they were there the first time. Perhaps
500
00:31:27.160 --> 00:31:31.240
the doors were closed and less obvious, but there were
501
00:31:31.319 --> 00:31:35.240
no other doors. Apparently, only two means of access and
502
00:31:35.359 --> 00:31:38.319
egress to and from the control room appeared to exist,
503
00:31:38.759 --> 00:31:41.480
and these were the points where the main corridor entered it.
504
00:31:43.599 --> 00:31:46.359
There's a lot of room unaccounted for just the same,
505
00:31:46.920 --> 00:31:50.359
remarked Stevenson after the search, and there must be some
506
00:31:50.480 --> 00:31:54.079
way into it. None of the rooms we investigated looking
507
00:31:54.160 --> 00:31:56.359
for that key had any sign of a ramp or
508
00:31:56.440 --> 00:31:59.720
stairway or trap door, but we didn't cover them all.
509
00:32:00.559 --> 00:32:02.880
I suggest we each take one side of the bow
510
00:32:02.960 --> 00:32:06.599
corridor and look behind every door we can open. None
511
00:32:06.640 --> 00:32:09.400
of the others was locked, so there shouldn't be much trouble.
512
00:32:10.720 --> 00:32:13.519
Prebble agreed and started along the left hand wall of
513
00:32:13.559 --> 00:32:16.359
the passage, sweeping it with his light as he went.
514
00:32:17.359 --> 00:32:21.000
The Chemist took the right side and did likewise. Each
515
00:32:21.079 --> 00:32:25.799
reached a door simultaneously and pushed it open, and as simultaneous.
516
00:32:26.240 --> 00:32:30.119
Here it is crackled from the suit radios a spiral
517
00:32:30.240 --> 00:32:33.000
ramp leading both up and down was revealed on either
518
00:32:33.039 --> 00:32:37.160
side of the ship, behind the two doors. That's more
519
00:32:37.240 --> 00:32:40.440
luck than we have a right to expect, laughed Stevenson.
520
00:32:41.240 --> 00:32:43.759
You take your side, I'll take mine, and we'll meet
521
00:32:43.839 --> 00:32:49.000
up above. Preble again agreed silently and started up the ramp.
522
00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:52.480
It was not strictly accurate to call it a spiral.
523
00:32:53.200 --> 00:32:56.599
It was a curve, evidently designed as a compromise to
524
00:32:56.640 --> 00:32:59.160
give some traction whether the ship were resting on its
525
00:32:59.160 --> 00:33:02.680
belly on a high gravity planet or accelerating on its
526
00:33:02.720 --> 00:33:06.119
longitudinal axis, and it did not make quite a complete
527
00:33:06.200 --> 00:33:10.440
turn in arriving at the next level above. Prebble stepped
528
00:33:10.480 --> 00:33:13.920
onto it, facing the port side, and stepped off, facing sternward,
529
00:33:14.279 --> 00:33:17.880
with a door at his left side. This he confidently
530
00:33:17.920 --> 00:33:20.720
tried to push open. Says, like the others, it lacked
531
00:33:20.759 --> 00:33:24.839
a knob or handle, but unlike them, it refused to budge.
532
00:33:26.119 --> 00:33:29.680
There was no mystery here. The most cursory of examination
533
00:33:29.839 --> 00:33:32.079
disclosed the fact that the door had been welded to
534
00:33:32.119 --> 00:33:35.599
its frame all around, raggedly and crudely, as though the
535
00:33:35.640 --> 00:33:38.720
work had been done in frantic haste, but very effectively.
536
00:33:39.640 --> 00:33:42.359
Nothing short of a high explosive or a heavy duty
537
00:33:42.400 --> 00:33:47.440
cutting arc could have opened that portal. Prebble didn't even try.
538
00:33:47.559 --> 00:33:50.119
He returned to the main level, meeting Stevenson at the
539
00:33:50.119 --> 00:33:53.519
foot of the ramp. One look at his face was
540
00:33:53.640 --> 00:33:58.720
enough for the chemist here too, He asked, The door
541
00:33:58.759 --> 00:34:00.960
on my side will never all and while the ship
542
00:34:01.039 --> 00:34:05.000
is hull, someone wanted to keep something either outside or
543
00:34:05.039 --> 00:34:09.880
inside that section, Probably in says the welding was done
544
00:34:09.920 --> 00:34:13.800
from the outside, replied Prebble. I'd like to know what
545
00:34:13.880 --> 00:34:16.880
it was. It would probably give us an idea of
546
00:34:16.960 --> 00:34:20.079
the reason for the desertion of this ship. Did you
547
00:34:20.119 --> 00:34:23.480
go down to the lower level? Not yet. We might
548
00:34:23.519 --> 00:34:26.360
as well go together. If one side is sealed, the
549
00:34:26.400 --> 00:34:30.800
other probably will be two. Come on. They were still
550
00:34:30.800 --> 00:34:32.880
on the left hand ramp, so it was on this
551
00:34:33.039 --> 00:34:36.880
side that they descended. A glance at the door here
552
00:34:37.119 --> 00:34:40.320
showed that at least it was not welded. The pressure
553
00:34:40.360 --> 00:34:43.159
of a hand showed it to be unlocked. The two
554
00:34:43.199 --> 00:34:46.119
men found themselves at the end of a corridor similar
555
00:34:46.159 --> 00:34:49.159
in all respects to the one above, except that it
556
00:34:49.199 --> 00:34:51.280
came to a dead end to the right of the door.
557
00:34:51.519 --> 00:34:55.639
Instead of continuing on into the central chamber. It was
558
00:34:55.719 --> 00:34:58.719
pitch dark except for the reflections of the hand lights
559
00:34:58.760 --> 00:35:02.559
on the polished metal walls, and along either side were doors,
560
00:35:02.800 --> 00:35:05.320
perhaps a trifle larger than most of the others on
561
00:35:05.360 --> 00:35:09.880
the ship. Many of these were ajar, others closed tightly
562
00:35:10.559 --> 00:35:13.239
and by common consent. The men stepped to the nearest
563
00:35:13.239 --> 00:35:16.840
of the former. The room behind it proved similar in
564
00:35:16.920 --> 00:35:20.199
size to those above, but it lacked the articles which
565
00:35:20.239 --> 00:35:22.440
the men had come to look upon as the furniture
566
00:35:22.480 --> 00:35:26.239
of the long dead crew. It was simply a bare,
567
00:35:26.400 --> 00:35:32.039
empty cubicle. The other chambers, quickly examined, showed no striking
568
00:35:32.039 --> 00:35:36.519
difference from the first. Several contained great stacks of metal incots,
569
00:35:36.800 --> 00:35:41.159
whose inertia and color suggested platinum or iridium. All were
570
00:35:41.199 --> 00:35:45.800
thickly coated with dust, as was the floor of the corridor. Here, too,
571
00:35:45.920 --> 00:35:49.480
there must have been organic materials, whether crew or cargo
572
00:35:49.760 --> 00:35:52.960
none could tell, which had slowly rotted away, while the
573
00:35:53.000 --> 00:35:57.320
amazingly tight hull held stubbornly to its air. The makers
574
00:35:57.320 --> 00:36:00.679
of the ship had certainly been superb machinists. No vessel
575
00:36:00.719 --> 00:36:03.159
made by man would have held atmosphere more than a
576
00:36:03.159 --> 00:36:08.519
few months without constant renewal. Have you noticed that there
577
00:36:08.559 --> 00:36:11.519
is nothing suggestive of a lock on any of these doors,
578
00:36:12.440 --> 00:36:15.239
asked Prebble, as they reached the blank wall which shut
579
00:36:15.280 --> 00:36:18.760
them off from the engine room in front. That's right,
580
00:36:19.199 --> 00:36:23.159
agreed Stevenson. The engine room port was the only one
581
00:36:23.199 --> 00:36:27.000
which had any obvious means of fastening. You'd think there
582
00:36:27.000 --> 00:36:29.679
would be need to hold them against changes in acceleration,
583
00:36:29.840 --> 00:36:34.039
if nothing else. He went over to the nearest of
584
00:36:34.079 --> 00:36:37.639
the doors and with some care examined its edge, which
585
00:36:37.679 --> 00:36:41.000
would be hidden when it was closed. Then he beckoned
586
00:36:41.000 --> 00:36:45.199
to Prebble, said, in the edge, almost invisible, was a
587
00:36:45.239 --> 00:36:48.280
half inch circle of metal, slightly different in color from
588
00:36:48.320 --> 00:36:51.760
the rest of the door. It seemed perfectly flush with
589
00:36:51.800 --> 00:36:54.920
the metal around it. Just above the circle was a
590
00:36:54.960 --> 00:36:59.199
little dot of copper. Both objects were matched in the
591
00:36:59.280 --> 00:37:02.920
jamb of the door, the copper spot by another precisely
592
00:37:02.960 --> 00:37:07.079
similar the circle, by a shallow, bowl shaped indentation of
593
00:37:07.159 --> 00:37:11.440
equal size and perhaps a millimeter deep. No means of
594
00:37:11.480 --> 00:37:15.400
activating the lock, if it were one, were visible. Stevenson
595
00:37:15.440 --> 00:37:18.639
stared at the system for several minutes, Prebble trying to
596
00:37:18.679 --> 00:37:23.360
see around the curve of his helmet. It's crazy, the
597
00:37:23.440 --> 00:37:27.000
chemist said at last. If that circle marks a bolt,
598
00:37:27.599 --> 00:37:30.639
why isn't it shaped to fit the hollow on the jam.
599
00:37:31.000 --> 00:37:33.519
It couldn't be moved forward a micron the way it is,
600
00:37:34.440 --> 00:37:37.320
and the thing can't be a magnetic lock. The hollow
601
00:37:37.400 --> 00:37:40.760
proves that too. You'd want the poles to fit as
602
00:37:40.880 --> 00:37:43.800
ugly as possible, not to have the field weakened by
603
00:37:43.800 --> 00:37:49.000
an air gap. What is it? Prebble blinked and almost
604
00:37:49.079 --> 00:37:53.760
bared his head in reverence, but was stopped by his helmet.
605
00:37:54.199 --> 00:37:57.880
You have it, friend, he said gently, It is a
606
00:37:57.920 --> 00:38:02.199
magnetic lock. I I bet he glanced at the long
607
00:38:02.239 --> 00:38:05.760
dial on his wrist. My chance of living another hundred hours.
608
00:38:05.840 --> 00:38:10.320
That's the story. But it's not based on magnetic attraction.
609
00:38:10.960 --> 00:38:15.239
It's magneto striction. A magnetic field would change the shape
610
00:38:15.239 --> 00:38:18.280
of a piece of metal somewhat as a strong electric
611
00:38:18.320 --> 00:38:22.519
field does to a crystal. They must have developed alloys
612
00:38:22.559 --> 00:38:25.920
in which the effect is extreme when the current is on.
613
00:38:26.360 --> 00:38:28.519
That bolt of yours fits into the hollow in the
614
00:38:28.599 --> 00:38:33.239
jam without any complicated lever system to move it. This
615
00:38:33.440 --> 00:38:36.320
apparently is a cargo hold, and all the doors are
616
00:38:36.360 --> 00:38:40.199
probably locked by one master switch, perhaps on the control board.
617
00:38:40.480 --> 00:38:44.320
But more, probably down here somewhere. So long as a
618
00:38:44.400 --> 00:38:48.119
current is flowing, the doors are locked. The current in
619
00:38:48.159 --> 00:38:51.480
any possible storage device must have been exhausted ages ago,
620
00:38:51.840 --> 00:38:55.719
even if these were left locked. But what about the
621
00:38:55.760 --> 00:38:59.519
engine room door, asked Stevenson. Could that have been of
622
00:38:59.559 --> 00:39:04.400
this time it was locked? Remember, Prebble thought for a moment.
623
00:39:05.639 --> 00:39:09.239
Could be the removable block might have been a permanent
624
00:39:09.280 --> 00:39:12.000
magnet that opposed another when it was in one way,
625
00:39:12.320 --> 00:39:15.679
and reinforced it when it was reversed. Of course, it
626
00:39:15.719 --> 00:39:18.039
would be difficult to separate them once they were placed
627
00:39:18.039 --> 00:39:21.599
in the latter position. Maybe the ship's current was used
628
00:39:21.599 --> 00:39:24.800
to make that possible. Now that the current is off,
629
00:39:25.119 --> 00:39:27.239
it may be that there will be some difficulty in
630
00:39:27.280 --> 00:39:31.119
returning that block to its original position. Let's go and see.
631
00:39:32.320 --> 00:39:34.400
He led the way back along the corridor to the
632
00:39:34.480 --> 00:39:44.000
ramp end of Part two, Technical Error, Part three. Cray
633
00:39:44.119 --> 00:39:48.920
received the theory with mingle satisfaction and annoyance. He should
634
00:39:49.000 --> 00:39:52.840
he felt have seen it himself. He had already discovered
635
00:39:52.840 --> 00:39:55.679
that the triangular blocks had developed an attachment for their
636
00:39:55.719 --> 00:39:59.760
new positions, and had even considered magnetism in that connection.
637
00:40:00.599 --> 00:40:04.559
But the full story had escaped him, he had had
638
00:40:04.639 --> 00:40:09.039
other things to worry about. Anyway, The freelance seekers had
639
00:40:09.079 --> 00:40:11.400
met the engineer at the entrance to the engine room.
640
00:40:12.239 --> 00:40:15.480
Now the three moved inside, stepping out into a catwalk
641
00:40:15.559 --> 00:40:19.239
similar to that in the control room. This chamber, however,
642
00:40:19.400 --> 00:40:22.079
was illuminated only by the hand torches of the men,
643
00:40:22.960 --> 00:40:25.280
and it was amazing to see how well they lit
644
00:40:25.360 --> 00:40:29.199
up the whole place, reflecting again and again from polished
645
00:40:29.239 --> 00:40:33.800
metal surfaces. When one had seen the tube arrangement from
646
00:40:33.840 --> 00:40:37.119
outside the ship, it was not difficult to identify most
647
00:40:37.119 --> 00:40:40.920
of the clustered machines. The two breeches, with their heavy
648
00:40:40.920 --> 00:40:45.440
injectors and disintegrators, projected in a continuous ring around the walls,
649
00:40:45.519 --> 00:40:49.519
and in a solid group from the forward bulkhead. Heavily
650
00:40:49.559 --> 00:40:53.519
insulated leads ran from the tubes to the supplementary cathode ejectors.
651
00:40:54.360 --> 00:40:56.679
It seemed evident that the ship had been driven and
652
00:40:56.719 --> 00:41:00.239
steered by reaction jets of heavy metal ions as the
653
00:41:00.280 --> 00:41:04.480
vessels of human make. All the machines were encased in
654
00:41:04.559 --> 00:41:08.559
heavy shields, which suggested that their makers were not immune
655
00:41:08.599 --> 00:41:15.119
to nuclear radiation. Not a bad layout, remarked Prebble found
656
00:41:15.119 --> 00:41:21.360
out whether they'll run. Craig glared no, he answered, almost viciously,
657
00:41:22.400 --> 00:41:25.559
would you mind taking a look at their innards for us?
658
00:41:26.679 --> 00:41:29.960
Preble raised his eyebrows and stepped across the twenty foot
659
00:41:29.960 --> 00:41:33.800
space between the catwalk and the nearest tube breach. It
660
00:41:33.920 --> 00:41:37.440
was fully six feet across, though the bore was probably
661
00:41:37.480 --> 00:41:40.760
not more than thirty inches. The walls had to contain
662
00:41:40.800 --> 00:41:43.519
the windings for the field, which kept the ion stream
663
00:41:43.599 --> 00:41:47.320
from actual contact with the metal. The rig, which was
664
00:41:47.360 --> 00:41:50.920
presumably the injector disintegrator unit, was a three foot bulge
665
00:41:50.920 --> 00:41:54.119
in the center, and the insulated feed tube led from
666
00:41:54.119 --> 00:41:58.039
it to a nearby fuel container. The fuel was probably
667
00:41:58.119 --> 00:42:01.920
either mercury or some other easily vaporized heavy metal such
668
00:42:01.920 --> 00:42:06.679
as lead. All this seemed obvious and simple enough, and
669
00:42:06.800 --> 00:42:09.840
was similar in basic design to engines with which even
670
00:42:09.840 --> 00:42:13.880
Prebble was familiar. But there was a slight departure from convention,
671
00:42:14.400 --> 00:42:17.239
and that the entire assembly from fuel line to the
672
00:42:17.280 --> 00:42:20.519
inner hull appeared to be one seamless surface of metal.
673
00:42:21.760 --> 00:42:24.960
Preble examined it closely all over and found no trace
674
00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.280
of a joint. I see what you mean, he said,
675
00:42:29.320 --> 00:42:33.719
at last, looking up. Are they all the same, Cray nodded.
676
00:42:34.760 --> 00:42:37.599
They seem to be. We haven't been able to get
677
00:42:37.639 --> 00:42:40.320
into any one of them. Even the tanks are tight.
678
00:42:41.119 --> 00:42:44.519
They look like decent honos atomics, but will never prove
679
00:42:44.559 --> 00:42:48.320
it by looking at the outside. But how did they
680
00:42:48.360 --> 00:42:52.960
service them? Asked Stevenson. Surely they didn't weld the cases
681
00:42:52.960 --> 00:42:55.039
on and hope their machines were good enough to run
682
00:42:55.079 --> 00:42:59.440
without attention. That's asking too much, even from a race
683
00:42:59.480 --> 00:43:01.679
that built a that could hold air as long as
684
00:43:01.719 --> 00:43:06.440
this must have. How could I possibly know? Growled Cray.
685
00:43:07.320 --> 00:43:09.679
Maybe they went outside and crawled in through the jets
686
00:43:09.679 --> 00:43:13.239
to service him only I imagine it's some trick seal
687
00:43:13.360 --> 00:43:17.360
like the door of this room. After all, that was
688
00:43:17.440 --> 00:43:20.639
common sense if you look at it right, the fewer
689
00:43:20.639 --> 00:43:24.039
moving parts, the less ware. Can anyone think of a
690
00:43:24.039 --> 00:43:26.599
way in which this breech mechanism could be fastened on
691
00:43:27.079 --> 00:43:29.840
with an invisible joint working from the same sort of
692
00:43:29.840 --> 00:43:34.159
common sense? Why no one got the answer then, will
693
00:43:34.159 --> 00:43:37.679
always remain a mystery. But the engineer was answered by
694
00:43:37.719 --> 00:43:40.800
nothing but half a dozen thought expressions more or less
695
00:43:40.840 --> 00:43:45.320
hidden in space helmets. He looked around hopefully for a moment,
696
00:43:45.599 --> 00:43:49.000
then shrugged his shoulders. Looks like we'll just have to
697
00:43:49.079 --> 00:43:53.559
puzzle around and hope for the best. He concluded, Jack
698
00:43:53.599 --> 00:43:55.880
and Don might as well go back to their own snooping,
699
00:43:56.400 --> 00:43:59.199
and for heaven's sake, if you get any more ideas,
700
00:43:59.440 --> 00:44:04.039
come and run. After glancing at Grant for confirmation of
701
00:44:04.079 --> 00:44:07.519
the suggestion, Preble and Stevenson left the engine room to
702
00:44:07.599 --> 00:44:12.400
continue their interrupted tour. I wonder if the upper section
703
00:44:12.519 --> 00:44:15.800
behind the control room is sealed, remarked the chemist as
704
00:44:15.800 --> 00:44:19.280
they entered the darkness of the corridor. I think we've
705
00:44:19.320 --> 00:44:23.960
covered the bough fairly well. Preble nodded, and without further speech,
706
00:44:24.400 --> 00:44:27.400
they passed through the control chamber, glancing at the board
707
00:44:27.519 --> 00:44:31.000
which had given Grant and mc checorn such trouble, and found,
708
00:44:31.039 --> 00:44:34.400
as they expected, ramps leading up and down opening from
709
00:44:34.480 --> 00:44:38.360
the rear corridor just as one entered. They stayed together
710
00:44:38.440 --> 00:44:42.079
this time and climbed the starboard spiral. The door at
711
00:44:42.079 --> 00:44:45.480
the top opened easily, which was some relief, but the
712
00:44:45.519 --> 00:44:49.079
whole way beyond was a disappointment. It might have been
713
00:44:49.159 --> 00:44:52.400
any of the others already visited, and a glance into
714
00:44:52.400 --> 00:44:55.599
each of the rooms revealed nothing but bare metal gleaming
715
00:44:55.599 --> 00:45:00.559
in the flashlight beams and dust covered floors. The keel
716
00:45:00.639 --> 00:45:04.400
corridor was also open, but here was an indication that
717
00:45:04.480 --> 00:45:06.440
one at least of the rooms had been used for
718
00:45:06.519 --> 00:45:11.760
occupancy rather than cargo. Stevenson looked into it first, since
719
00:45:11.800 --> 00:45:14.039
it was on the side of a corridor he had taken.
720
00:45:14.960 --> 00:45:18.199
He instantly called his companion and Prebble came to look
721
00:45:18.239 --> 00:45:20.880
at the objects standing in the beam of the chemist's light.
722
00:45:22.440 --> 00:45:24.719
It was a seat identical to the one in the
723
00:45:24.760 --> 00:45:28.519
control chamber, a mount of metal with five deep grooves
724
00:45:28.559 --> 00:45:32.559
equally spaced around it. The tiny reflected images of the
725
00:45:32.559 --> 00:45:36.440
flashlight stared up from its convex surfaces like luminous eyes.
726
00:45:37.480 --> 00:45:40.239
None of the other furniture that had characterized the room
727
00:45:40.239 --> 00:45:43.559
in the central bow corridor was present, but the floor
728
00:45:43.679 --> 00:45:48.119
was not quite bare. Opposite each of the five grooves
729
00:45:48.119 --> 00:45:50.840
in the seat, perhaps a foot out from it, a
730
00:45:50.960 --> 00:45:53.880
yard long metal cable was neatly welded to the floor.
731
00:45:54.840 --> 00:45:58.480
A little farther out, and also equally spaced about the seat,
732
00:45:58.639 --> 00:46:02.679
were three more, almost twice as long. The free end
733
00:46:02.719 --> 00:46:05.320
of each of the eight cables was cut off cleanly,
734
00:46:05.760 --> 00:46:09.800
as though by some extremely efficient instrument. The flat cut
735
00:46:09.880 --> 00:46:15.360
surfaces were almost mere smooth. Stevenson and Prebble examined them carefully,
736
00:46:15.840 --> 00:46:19.840
and then looked at each other with thoughtful expressions. Both
737
00:46:19.880 --> 00:46:23.920
were beginning to get ideas, neither was willing to divulge them.
738
00:46:25.599 --> 00:46:28.440
There remained to explore only the stern engine room and
739
00:46:28.519 --> 00:46:31.679
the passage leading to it, together with the rooms along
740
00:46:31.719 --> 00:46:35.360
the ladder. They had no tools with which to remove
741
00:46:35.400 --> 00:46:38.400
a specimen of one of the cables, so they carefully
742
00:46:38.440 --> 00:46:41.000
noted the door behind which the seat and its surroundings
743
00:46:41.039 --> 00:46:44.039
had been found, and climbed once more to the central
744
00:46:44.079 --> 00:46:48.320
deck before making their last find. They had begun to
745
00:46:48.360 --> 00:46:52.360
be bored with the rather monotonous search, particularly since they
746
00:46:52.360 --> 00:46:54.760
had no clear idea of what they were searching for.
747
00:46:55.679 --> 00:46:58.159
Without it, they might have been tempted to ignore the
748
00:46:58.199 --> 00:47:02.639
rooms along the corridor and go straight to the engine room. Now, however,
749
00:47:02.880 --> 00:47:07.639
they investigated every chamber carefully, and their failure to find
750
00:47:07.679 --> 00:47:12.719
anything of interest was proportionally more disappointing. And then they
751
00:47:12.840 --> 00:47:17.360
reached the engine room door. Flashlights swept once over the
752
00:47:17.400 --> 00:47:20.800
metal surface, picking out the three discs with their inset
753
00:47:20.840 --> 00:47:25.000
triangular blocks, as the men had expected, but the coppery
754
00:47:25.119 --> 00:47:27.880
reflection from two of the blocks startled them into an
755
00:47:27.960 --> 00:47:33.000
instant motionlessness. Of the three seals, they realized only one,
756
00:47:33.360 --> 00:47:38.440
the uppermost, was locked. It was as though whoever had
757
00:47:38.519 --> 00:47:41.639
last been in the room had left hastily or was
758
00:47:41.639 --> 00:47:45.920
not a regular occupant of the ship. Prebble quickly reversed
759
00:47:45.920 --> 00:47:49.480
the remaining block and unscrewed the three discs. Then the
760
00:47:49.519 --> 00:47:52.199
two men leaned against the door and watched its swing
761
00:47:52.320 --> 00:47:57.960
slowly open. Both were unjustifiably excited. The state of the
762
00:47:58.000 --> 00:48:02.480
door had stimulated their imagination. Already working overtime on the
763
00:48:02.519 --> 00:48:09.159
material previously provided for once, they were not disappointed. The
764
00:48:09.239 --> 00:48:12.760
light revealed, besides the tanks, converters, and two breaches which
765
00:48:12.760 --> 00:48:16.039
had been so obvious in the forward engine room, several
766
00:48:16.079 --> 00:48:19.079
open cabinets which had been mere bulges on the walls
767
00:48:19.119 --> 00:48:23.079
up forward. Tools and other bits of apparatus filled these
768
00:48:23.119 --> 00:48:26.920
and lay about on the floor. Light frameworks of metal
769
00:48:27.239 --> 00:48:31.079
rather like small building scaffolds enclosed two of the axial
770
00:48:31.079 --> 00:48:35.559
tube breeches, and more tools lay on these. It was
771
00:48:35.599 --> 00:48:38.119
the first scene they had encountered on the ship that
772
00:48:38.199 --> 00:48:43.519
suggested action and life rather than desertion and stagnation. Even
773
00:48:43.599 --> 00:48:47.079
the dust present here as everywhere, could not eradicate the
774
00:48:47.079 --> 00:48:49.800
impression that the workers had dropped their tools for a
775
00:48:49.840 --> 00:48:54.760
brief rest and would return shortly. Prebble went at once
776
00:48:54.840 --> 00:48:57.800
to the tubes upon which work had apparently been in progress.
777
00:48:58.639 --> 00:49:02.039
He was wondering, as he had been since first examining one,
778
00:49:02.360 --> 00:49:06.400
how they were open for servicing. He had never taken seriously.
779
00:49:06.559 --> 00:49:09.440
Craze remark that it might have been done from outside.
780
00:49:10.719 --> 00:49:13.480
His eye caught the thing at once. The dome of
781
00:49:13.559 --> 00:49:17.239
metal that presumably contained the disintegrator and ionizing units have
782
00:49:17.320 --> 00:49:20.280
been disconnected from the fuel tank, as he had seen
783
00:49:20.320 --> 00:49:24.119
from across the room, but a closer look showed that
784
00:49:24.199 --> 00:49:26.639
it had been removed from the tube as well, and
785
00:49:26.719 --> 00:49:30.679
replaced somewhat carelessly. It did not match the edges of
786
00:49:30.719 --> 00:49:33.920
its seat all around. Now it was displaced a little
787
00:49:33.920 --> 00:49:37.480
to one side, exposing a narrow crescent of flat metal
788
00:49:37.519 --> 00:49:41.199
on each of the two faces, normally in complete contact.
789
00:49:42.239 --> 00:49:45.119
An idea of the position can be obtained by placing
790
00:49:45.159 --> 00:49:48.000
two pennies, one on the other and giving the upper
791
00:49:48.000 --> 00:49:52.400
one a slight sideward displacement. The line of juncture of
792
00:49:52.440 --> 00:49:57.920
the two pieces was therefore visible all around Unfortunately, the
793
00:49:57.960 --> 00:50:01.760
clapping device Prebble expected to find was not visible anywhere.
794
00:50:02.960 --> 00:50:05.199
He got a grip, a very poor one, with his
795
00:50:05.280 --> 00:50:08.679
gloved hand, on the slightly projecting edge of the hemisphere,
796
00:50:09.000 --> 00:50:13.320
and tried to pull it free without success. And it
797
00:50:13.440 --> 00:50:16.519
was that failure which gave him the right answer, the
798
00:50:16.559 --> 00:50:19.719
only possible way in which an air tight and pressure
799
00:50:19.719 --> 00:50:23.480
tight seal could be fastened solidly, even with the parts
800
00:50:23.519 --> 00:50:27.519
out of alignment with non magnetic alloys. It was a
801
00:50:27.599 --> 00:50:30.519
method that had been used on Earth, though not on
802
00:50:30.559 --> 00:50:34.960
this scale, and he was disgusted at his earlier failure
803
00:50:35.039 --> 00:50:38.920
to see it. Magnetism, of course, could not be used
804
00:50:38.920 --> 00:50:42.199
so near the ion projectors, since it would interfere with
805
00:50:42.239 --> 00:50:46.360
the controlling fields. But there was another force, ever present
806
00:50:46.440 --> 00:50:51.599
and available, molecular attraction. The adjoining faces of the seal
807
00:50:51.639 --> 00:50:55.880
were plain, not merely flat to speak of. Their accuracy
808
00:50:55.920 --> 00:50:58.840
in terms of the wavelength of sodium light would be useless.
809
00:50:59.840 --> 00:51:03.760
Tenth wave surface representing hours of skilled human hand labor
810
00:51:03.920 --> 00:51:08.360
would be jagged in comparison. Yet the relatively large area
811
00:51:08.360 --> 00:51:11.000
of these seals, and the frequency with which the method
812
00:51:11.079 --> 00:51:15.480
appeared to have been used, argued mass production not painstaking
813
00:51:15.519 --> 00:51:20.119
polishing by hand. But if the seal were actually wrung tight,
814
00:51:20.559 --> 00:51:25.199
another problem presented itself. How could the surfaces be separated
815
00:51:25.400 --> 00:51:28.480
against a force sufficient to confine and direct the blast
816
00:51:28.519 --> 00:51:32.320
of the ion rockets? No marks on the breech suggested
817
00:51:32.360 --> 00:51:35.559
the application of prying tools, and what blade could be
818
00:51:35.599 --> 00:51:40.440
inserted into such a seal. Stevenson came over to see
819
00:51:40.440 --> 00:51:43.280
what was keeping Prebble so quiet and listened while the
820
00:51:43.360 --> 00:51:48.119
latter explained his discovery and problems. We can have a
821
00:51:48.119 --> 00:51:52.760
look through these cabinets, the chemist remarked. Finally, this seems
822
00:51:52.800 --> 00:51:56.360
to Fitzerel's idea of a tool requiring job. Just keep
823
00:51:56.400 --> 00:52:01.559
your eyes in mind open. The open minds seemed particularly indicated.
824
00:52:02.199 --> 00:52:04.719
The many articles lying in and about the cabinets were
825
00:52:04.760 --> 00:52:09.519
undoubtedly tools, but their uses were far from obvious. They
826
00:52:09.559 --> 00:52:12.880
differed from man made tools in at least one vital aspect.
827
00:52:14.000 --> 00:52:19.199
Many of our tools or devices for forcing hammers, wrenches, clamps, pliers,
828
00:52:19.199 --> 00:52:22.519
and the like. A really good machine job would need
829
00:52:22.559 --> 00:52:26.559
no such devices. The parts would fit with just enough
830
00:52:26.599 --> 00:52:31.639
clearance to eliminate undesired friction, and no more that. The
831
00:52:31.679 --> 00:52:34.920
builders of the ship were superb designers and machinists was
832
00:52:34.960 --> 00:52:38.800
already evident. What sort of tools they would need was
833
00:52:38.880 --> 00:52:44.320
not so obvious shaping devices, of course, there were plans, cutters,
834
00:52:44.360 --> 00:52:48.159
and grinders among the littered articles. All were portable but
835
00:52:48.320 --> 00:52:52.559
solidly built, and were easily recognized even by Prebble and Stevenson.
836
00:52:53.639 --> 00:52:56.480
But what were the pairs of slender rods which clung
837
00:52:56.519 --> 00:53:01.920
together obviously magnetized. What were the small sealed glass tubes,
838
00:53:02.519 --> 00:53:06.320
the long grooved strips of metal and plastic, the featureless
839
00:53:06.360 --> 00:53:10.639
steel blue spheres, the iridescent, oddly shaped plates of paper
840
00:53:10.679 --> 00:53:15.360
thin metal. The amateur investigators could not even guess, and
841
00:53:15.480 --> 00:53:21.159
sent for professional help. Cray and his assistance almost crooned
842
00:53:21.199 --> 00:53:24.400
with pleasure as they saw the untidy floor and cabinets,
843
00:53:25.320 --> 00:53:28.639
but an hour of careful examination and theorizing left them
844
00:53:28.679 --> 00:53:32.960
in a less pleasant mood. Cray conceded that the molecular
845
00:53:33.000 --> 00:53:36.840
attraction theory was most probably correct, but made no headway
846
00:53:36.880 --> 00:53:40.360
at all on the problem of breaking the seal. Nothing
847
00:53:40.360 --> 00:53:43.000
in the room seemed capable of insertion in the air
848
00:53:43.079 --> 00:53:48.559
tight joint. Why not try sliding them apart, asked Stevenson.
849
00:53:49.360 --> 00:53:51.599
If they're as smooth as all that, there should be
850
00:53:51.599 --> 00:53:56.519
no difficulty. Cray picked up a piece of metal. Why
851
00:53:56.519 --> 00:53:59.559
don't you imagine a plane through this bar and slided
852
00:53:59.599 --> 00:54:03.639
apart of long that, He asked, The crystals of the
853
00:54:03.679 --> 00:54:07.000
metal are practically as close together and grip each other
854
00:54:07.199 --> 00:54:10.760
almost as tightly. In the other case, you'll have to
855
00:54:10.800 --> 00:54:15.039
get something between them. The chemists, who should have known
856
00:54:15.079 --> 00:54:19.519
more physics, nodded. But it's more than the lubricant that
857
00:54:19.639 --> 00:54:23.760
keeps the parts of an engine apart, he said. No,
858
00:54:24.239 --> 00:54:27.320
the parts of one of our machines are relatively far apart,
859
00:54:27.760 --> 00:54:32.960
so that molecular attraction is negligible, answered the machinist. But
860
00:54:34.440 --> 00:54:38.239
I believe you have something there. A lubricant might do it.
861
00:54:39.039 --> 00:54:43.519
Molecules might conceivably work their way between those surfaces. Has
862
00:54:43.559 --> 00:54:47.639
anybody noticed anything in this mess that might fill the bill? Yes,
863
00:54:48.159 --> 00:54:52.800
answered Prepple promptly. These glass tubes. They contain liquid and
864
00:54:52.920 --> 00:54:56.239
have been fused shut, which is about the only way
865
00:54:56.280 --> 00:54:58.639
you could seal in a substance such as you would need.
866
00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:01.880
He stepped to a cabinet and picked up one of
867
00:55:01.880 --> 00:55:06.159
the three inch long transparent cylinders. A short nozzle, its
868
00:55:06.239 --> 00:55:09.559
end melted shut projected from one end, and a small
869
00:55:09.599 --> 00:55:13.599
bubble was visible in the liquid within. The bubble moved
870
00:55:13.639 --> 00:55:16.760
sluggishly when the tube was inverted, and broke up into
871
00:55:16.760 --> 00:55:21.000
many small winds when it was shaken. These recombined instantly
872
00:55:21.039 --> 00:55:25.679
when the liquid came to rest, which was encouraging. Evidently
873
00:55:25.840 --> 00:55:29.159
the stuff possessed a very low viscosity and surface tension.
874
00:55:30.760 --> 00:55:33.000
Crate of the tube over to the breach, which had
875
00:55:33.039 --> 00:55:36.800
been partly opened and carelessly closed so long ago, held
876
00:55:36.840 --> 00:55:39.519
the nozzle against the edge of the seal, and after
877
00:55:39.559 --> 00:55:43.280
a moment's hesitation, snapped off the tip with his gloved fingers.
878
00:55:44.239 --> 00:55:47.000
He expected the liquid to ooze out in the asteroid's
879
00:55:47.039 --> 00:55:50.400
feeble gravity, but its vapor pressure must have been high,
880
00:55:50.840 --> 00:55:54.960
for it sprayed out in a heavy stream. Droplets rebounded
881
00:55:55.000 --> 00:55:59.119
from the metal and evaporated almost instantly with equal speed.
882
00:55:59.320 --> 00:56:03.400
The liquid, which spread over the surface, vanished only a
883
00:56:03.440 --> 00:56:06.280
tiny fraction of a percent, if that could have found
884
00:56:06.320 --> 00:56:10.800
its way between the surfaces. Cray stared tensely at the
885
00:56:10.840 --> 00:56:14.679
dome of metal as the tube emptied itself. After a moment,
886
00:56:14.960 --> 00:56:18.119
he dropped the empty cylinder and applied a sideways pressure.
887
00:56:19.440 --> 00:56:22.719
A crescent of shifting rainbow colors appeared at the edge
888
00:56:22.719 --> 00:56:25.880
of the seal, and the dome slowly slid off to
889
00:56:25.920 --> 00:56:29.840
one side. The crescent did not widen, for the lubricant
890
00:56:29.840 --> 00:56:34.360
evaporated the instant it was exposed. Preble and Stevenson caught
891
00:56:34.360 --> 00:56:37.519
the heavy dome and eased its mass to the central catwalk.
892
00:56:38.960 --> 00:56:42.000
The last of the rainbow film of lubricant evaporated from
893
00:56:42.000 --> 00:56:44.920
the metal, and the engineers crowded around the open breach.
894
00:56:46.239 --> 00:56:50.400
There was no mass of machinery inside. The disintegrators would
895
00:56:50.400 --> 00:56:52.880
of course, be within the dome, which had been removed.
896
00:56:53.960 --> 00:56:56.800
The coils which generated the fields designed to keep the
897
00:56:56.840 --> 00:56:59.719
stream of ionized vapor from contact with the two balls,
898
00:56:59.719 --> 00:57:04.280
were also invisible, being sealed into the tube blinding. Neither
899
00:57:04.320 --> 00:57:07.239
of these facts bothered the men, for their own engines
900
00:57:07.280 --> 00:57:11.519
have been similarly designed. Cray wormed his way down the
901
00:57:11.559 --> 00:57:13.840
full length of the tube to make sure it was
902
00:57:13.840 --> 00:57:16.239
not field failure which had caused it to be opened
903
00:57:16.239 --> 00:57:19.960
in the first place. Then the three specialists turned to
904
00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:24.079
the breach, which had been removed. The only visible feature
905
00:57:24.119 --> 00:57:26.639
of its flat side was the central port through which
906
00:57:26.639 --> 00:57:29.400
the metallic vapor of the exhaust had entered the tube.
907
00:57:30.039 --> 00:57:33.320
But application of another of the cylinders of lubricant, combined
908
00:57:33.320 --> 00:57:36.360
with the asteroids gravity caused most of the plate to
909
00:57:36.440 --> 00:57:42.000
fall away and reveal the disintegrator mechanism within Preble. Stevenson,
910
00:57:42.079 --> 00:57:44.920
Grant and mckechorn watched for a while as a piece
911
00:57:44.920 --> 00:57:48.320
of the disintegrator began to cover the floor of the room,
912
00:57:48.880 --> 00:57:51.400
but they finally realized that they were only getting in
913
00:57:51.400 --> 00:57:53.119
the way of men who seemed to know what they
914
00:57:53.119 --> 00:57:56.639
were doing, so a gradual retreat to the main corridor
915
00:57:56.719 --> 00:58:04.199
took place. End of Part three, Technical Error, Part four.
916
00:58:05.920 --> 00:58:07.920
Do you suppose they can find out what was wrong
917
00:58:07.960 --> 00:58:12.960
with it? Queried Stevenson. We should, it was Craz's voice
918
00:58:12.960 --> 00:58:16.440
on the radio. The principle of this gadget is exactly
919
00:58:16.559 --> 00:58:19.159
like our own. The only trouble is that they've used
920
00:58:19.159 --> 00:58:23.559
that blasted molecular attraction fasting method everywhere. It's taking quite
921
00:58:23.559 --> 00:58:27.519
a while to get it apart. It's odd that the
922
00:58:27.559 --> 00:58:29.920
technology of these beings should have been so similar to
923
00:58:30.000 --> 00:58:34.559
ours and principle, and yet so different in detail, remarked Grant.
924
00:58:35.960 --> 00:58:38.400
I've been thinking it over and can't come to any
925
00:58:38.440 --> 00:58:41.920
conclusion as to what the reason could be. I thought
926
00:58:41.960 --> 00:58:45.239
perhaps their sense organs were different from ours, But I
927
00:58:45.320 --> 00:58:48.639
have no idea how that could produce such results. Not
928
00:58:48.800 --> 00:58:52.039
surprising since I can't imagine what sort of senses could
929
00:58:52.039 --> 00:58:57.400
exist to replace or supplement ours unless there are bodies
930
00:58:57.400 --> 00:59:00.000
in the sealed off corridor and rooms. I doubt it
931
00:59:00.000 --> 00:59:02.880
if you'll ever find the answer to that one, answered Prebble.
932
00:59:03.920 --> 00:59:06.679
I'll be greatly surprised if anyone ever proves that this
933
00:59:06.800 --> 00:59:10.880
ship was made in this solar system. I'll be surprised
934
00:59:11.000 --> 00:59:13.840
enough if anyone proves anything at all constructive about it,
935
00:59:14.519 --> 00:59:20.760
returned Grant. Cray's voice interrupted again. There's something funny about
936
00:59:20.760 --> 00:59:24.400
part of this, he said. I think it's a relay
937
00:59:24.800 --> 00:59:29.519
working from your main controls, but that's only a guess.
938
00:59:29.880 --> 00:59:32.559
It's not only connected to the electric part of the business,
939
00:59:33.039 --> 00:59:35.719
but practically built around the fuel in let as well.
940
00:59:36.639 --> 00:59:40.920
By itself. It's all right, solenoid and moving core type.
941
00:59:41.159 --> 00:59:44.639
We've had it a part too. What you plan to do?
942
00:59:45.159 --> 00:59:48.360
Asked Grant. Have you found anything wrong with the unit
943
00:59:48.400 --> 00:59:52.360
as a whole? No, we haven't. It has occurred to
944
00:59:52.400 --> 00:59:55.000
me that the breach was unsealed for some purpose other
945
00:59:55.079 --> 00:59:59.039
than repair. It would make a handy emergency exit, and
946
00:59:59.159 --> 01:00:01.679
that might account for the careless way was re sealed.
947
01:00:02.760 --> 01:00:05.480
We were thinking of putting it back together, arranging the
948
01:00:05.519 --> 01:00:07.639
relay so that we can control it from here and
949
01:00:07.679 --> 01:00:10.239
test the whole tube. Is that all right with you?
950
01:00:11.599 --> 01:00:14.639
If you think you can do it, go ahead, replied Grant.
951
01:00:15.679 --> 01:00:18.920
We haven't gotten much to lose. I should say, could
952
01:00:18.920 --> 01:00:21.360
you fix up the whole thing to drive by local control?
953
01:00:22.920 --> 01:00:26.320
Possibly wait till we see what happens to this one.
954
01:00:27.039 --> 01:00:28.760
Cray moved out of the line of sight in the
955
01:00:28.760 --> 01:00:31.440
engine room doorway, and his radio waves were cut off.
956
01:00:32.760 --> 01:00:36.079
Stevenson moved to the doorway to watch the process of reassembly.
957
01:00:36.960 --> 01:00:40.039
The other three went up to the control room. The
958
01:00:40.159 --> 01:00:43.000
eeriness of the place had worn off. There was no
959
01:00:43.079 --> 01:00:46.199
longer the suggestion of the presence of the unknoble creature
960
01:00:46.280 --> 01:00:50.840
who had once controlled the ship. Prebble was slightly surprised.
961
01:00:51.280 --> 01:00:53.800
Since it was now night on this part of the asteroid.
962
01:00:54.639 --> 01:00:58.280
Any ghostly suggestion should have been enhanced rather than lessened.
963
01:00:59.239 --> 01:01:04.920
Familiarity must have bred contempt. No indicator lights grace to
964
01:01:04.960 --> 01:01:08.079
control panel. Grant had half hoped that the work in
965
01:01:08.119 --> 01:01:11.000
the engine room might have been recorded here, but he
966
01:01:11.119 --> 01:01:15.320
was not particularly surprised he had given up any hopes
967
01:01:15.360 --> 01:01:18.239
of controlling the vessel from this board, as his remark
968
01:01:18.320 --> 01:01:22.440
to Cray had indicated. I hope Craik can get those
969
01:01:22.440 --> 01:01:26.960
tubes going, he said, after a lengthy silence. It would
970
01:01:26.960 --> 01:01:29.079
be enough if we could push this ship even in
971
01:01:29.119 --> 01:01:32.719
the general direction of Earth. Luckily, the orbit of this
972
01:01:32.880 --> 01:01:36.519
body is already pretty eccentric. About all we would have
973
01:01:36.599 --> 01:01:40.639
to do is correct the plane of motion. Even if
974
01:01:40.639 --> 01:01:43.400
we can't start enough tubes to control a flight, we
975
01:01:43.480 --> 01:01:47.880
could use one as a signal. Flare, remarked Prebble. Remember
976
01:01:48.199 --> 01:01:51.119
the Mazaar is in this sector. He once had hopes
977
01:01:51.159 --> 01:01:53.760
of contacting her with the signal equipment of this ship.
978
01:01:53.920 --> 01:01:56.920
If you could find any The blast from one of
979
01:01:56.960 --> 01:01:59.760
these tubes striking a rock surface would make as much
980
01:01:59.920 --> 01:02:04.920
k light as you could want. That's a thought, mused Grant,
981
01:02:05.800 --> 01:02:09.519
as usual, too simple for me to think of. As
982
01:02:09.519 --> 01:02:12.920
a matter of fact, it probably represents our best chance.
983
01:02:13.920 --> 01:02:16.280
We'll go down now and tell Cray simply to leave
984
01:02:16.320 --> 01:02:20.159
the tube going if he can get it started. The
985
01:02:20.239 --> 01:02:23.000
four men glided back down the corridor to the engine room.
986
01:02:23.760 --> 01:02:26.800
The reassembly of the breech mechanism was far from completed,
987
01:02:27.159 --> 01:02:30.159
and Grant did not like to interrupt. He was of
988
01:02:30.199 --> 01:02:33.440
course reasonably familiar with such motors and knew that their
989
01:02:33.480 --> 01:02:38.000
assembly was a delicate task, even for an expert. Crays
990
01:02:38.039 --> 01:02:41.079
makeshift magnetic device for controlling the relay when the breach
991
01:02:41.199 --> 01:02:45.079
was sealed was a comet on the man's ingenuity. It
992
01:02:45.199 --> 01:02:47.639
was not his fault that none of the men noticed
993
01:02:47.679 --> 01:02:49.880
that the core of the relay was made of the
994
01:02:49.920 --> 01:02:53.039
same alloy as the great screw cox which held the
995
01:02:53.079 --> 01:02:55.920
engine room door shut, and the small bolts on the
996
01:02:55.960 --> 01:02:59.639
doors in the cargo hold. It was, in fact a
997
01:02:59.719 --> 01:03:03.599
delt governor controlling the relation between fuel flow and the
998
01:03:03.639 --> 01:03:08.000
breech field strength, a very necessary control, since the field
999
01:03:08.079 --> 01:03:10.159
had to be strong enough to keep the hot vapor
1000
01:03:10.199 --> 01:03:13.639
from actual contact with the breach, but not strong enough
1001
01:03:13.679 --> 01:03:16.400
to overcome the effect of the fields protecting the throat
1002
01:03:16.440 --> 01:03:18.880
of the tube, which were at right angles to it.
1003
01:03:20.440 --> 01:03:23.719
There was, of course a similar governor in man main motors,
1004
01:03:24.280 --> 01:03:26.519
but it was normally located in the throat of the
1005
01:03:26.559 --> 01:03:29.480
tube and was controlled by the magnetic effect of the
1006
01:03:29.519 --> 01:03:34.000
ion stream. The device was not obvious, and of course
1007
01:03:34.280 --> 01:03:36.559
was not of a nature which a human engineer would
1008
01:03:36.599 --> 01:03:40.559
anticipate it might have gone on operating normally for an
1009
01:03:40.599 --> 01:03:44.840
indefinite period if Cray had used any means whatever except
1010
01:03:45.000 --> 01:03:50.159
magnetic manipulation to open and close the relay. The engineers
1011
01:03:50.199 --> 01:03:53.519
finally straightened and stood back from their work. The breach
1012
01:03:53.639 --> 01:03:56.559
was once more in place, this time without the air
1013
01:03:56.679 --> 01:03:59.360
in alignment which had caused the discovery of the seal.
1014
01:04:00.719 --> 01:04:03.119
Clapped to the center of the dome, just where the
1015
01:04:03.159 --> 01:04:06.480
fuel feed tube merged with its surface was the control,
1016
01:04:06.639 --> 01:04:09.159
which had been pieced together from articles found in the
1017
01:04:09.159 --> 01:04:13.400
tool cabinets. It was little more than a coil whose
1018
01:04:13.440 --> 01:04:16.360
field was supposed to be strong enough to replace that
1019
01:04:16.440 --> 01:04:19.239
of the interior solenoid through the metal of the breach.
1020
01:04:20.320 --> 01:04:23.239
Prebble had gone outside and now returned to report that
1021
01:04:23.239 --> 01:04:25.440
the slight downward tilt of the end of the ship
1022
01:04:25.760 --> 01:04:28.000
in which they were working would cause the blast from
1023
01:04:28.000 --> 01:04:31.480
this particular tube to strike the ground fifty or sixty
1024
01:04:31.559 --> 01:04:35.039
yards to the rear. This was far enough for safety
1025
01:04:35.039 --> 01:04:38.880
from splash, and probably close enough so that the intensity
1026
01:04:38.880 --> 01:04:43.599
of the blast would not be greatly diminished. Cray reported
1027
01:04:43.719 --> 01:04:46.960
that the assembly, as nearly as he could tell, should work.
1028
01:04:48.960 --> 01:04:51.599
Then I suggest that you and any one you need
1029
01:04:51.639 --> 01:04:53.920
to help you remain here and start it in a
1030
01:04:53.920 --> 01:04:56.760
few moments while the rest of us go outside to
1031
01:04:56.800 --> 01:05:00.559
observe results. We'll keep clear of the stern, so don't
1032
01:05:00.559 --> 01:05:05.559
worry about us, said Grant. We're on the night side
1033
01:05:05.599 --> 01:05:09.239
of the asteroid now, and as I remember, the mazaar
1034
01:05:09.400 --> 01:05:13.079
was outward and counterclockwise of this asteroid's position twenty four
1035
01:05:13.079 --> 01:05:17.360
hours ago. By heaven, I've just realized that all this
1036
01:05:17.480 --> 01:05:21.320
has occurred in less than twenty hours. She should be
1037
01:05:21.360 --> 01:05:24.199
able to sight the flare at twenty million miles. If
1038
01:05:24.199 --> 01:05:26.320
this tube carries half the pep that one of ours
1039
01:05:26.320 --> 01:05:31.360
would Cray nodded. I can start it alone, he said.
1040
01:05:31.760 --> 01:05:34.199
The rest of you go on out. I'll give you
1041
01:05:34.239 --> 01:05:36.280
a couple of minutes, then turn it on for just
1042
01:05:36.320 --> 01:05:38.800
a moment. I'll give you time to send some one
1043
01:05:38.840 --> 01:05:43.519
in if anything is wrong. Grant nodded approval and led
1044
01:05:43.559 --> 01:05:46.000
the other five men along the main corridor and out
1045
01:05:46.039 --> 01:05:49.719
the airlock. They leaped to a position perhaps a hundred
1046
01:05:49.760 --> 01:05:52.280
and fifty yards to one side of the ship and waited.
1047
01:05:53.920 --> 01:05:56.400
The tube in question was one of the lowest in
1048
01:05:56.440 --> 01:05:59.639
the bank of those parallel to the ship's longitudinal axis.
1049
01:06:00.559 --> 01:06:03.079
For several moments after the men had reached their position,
1050
01:06:03.320 --> 01:06:07.679
it remained lifeless. Then a silent, barely visible ghost of
1051
01:06:07.800 --> 01:06:11.400
flame jetted from its lip. This changed to a track
1052
01:06:11.440 --> 01:06:14.559
of dazzling incandescence at the point where it first contacted
1053
01:06:14.599 --> 01:06:18.440
the rock of the asteroid, and the watchers automatically snapped
1054
01:06:18.440 --> 01:06:22.000
the glare shields into place on their helmets. These were
1055
01:06:22.039 --> 01:06:24.599
all in place before anyone realized that the tube was
1056
01:06:24.639 --> 01:06:28.440
still firing, cutting a glowing canyon into the granite and
1057
01:06:28.559 --> 01:06:33.239
hurling a cloud of boiling silica into space. Grant stared
1058
01:06:33.280 --> 01:06:37.440
for a moment, leaped for the airlock, and disappeared inside.
1059
01:06:37.760 --> 01:06:40.360
As he entered the control room from the front, Cray
1060
01:06:40.480 --> 01:06:43.159
burst in from the opposite end, making fully as good
1061
01:06:43.199 --> 01:06:46.800
time as the captain. He didn't even pause, but called
1062
01:06:46.840 --> 01:06:49.800
out as he came she wouldn't cut off, and the
1063
01:06:49.840 --> 01:06:53.679
fuel flow is increasing. I can't stop it. Get out
1064
01:06:53.679 --> 01:06:56.440
before the breach gives. I didn't have time to close
1065
01:06:56.480 --> 01:07:00.199
the engine room door. Grant was in mid air when
1066
01:07:00.199 --> 01:07:03.400
the engineer spoke, but he grasped a stanchion that supported
1067
01:07:03.400 --> 01:07:06.239
the catwalk, swung around it like a comet, and reversed
1068
01:07:06.280 --> 01:07:08.599
his direction of flight before the other man caught up
1069
01:07:08.599 --> 01:07:11.800
to him. They burst out of the airlock at practically
1070
01:07:11.840 --> 01:07:15.280
the same instant. By the time they reached the others,
1071
01:07:15.440 --> 01:07:19.199
the tube fields had gone far out of balance. The
1072
01:07:19.239 --> 01:07:21.480
lips of the jet tube were glowing blue white and
1073
01:07:21.599 --> 01:07:25.159
vanishing as the street caught them, and the process accelerated.
1074
01:07:25.239 --> 01:07:29.320
As the men watched, the bank of stern tubes glowed brightly,
1075
01:07:29.760 --> 01:07:33.599
began to drip, and boiled rapidly away. The walls of
1076
01:07:33.639 --> 01:07:36.800
the engine room radiated a bright red, then yellow, and
1077
01:07:36.920 --> 01:07:40.800
suddenly slumped inward. That was the last straw for the
1078
01:07:40.840 --> 01:07:45.599
torture disintegrator. Its own supremely resistant substance yielded to the
1079
01:07:45.679 --> 01:07:50.239
lack of external cooling, and the device ceased to exist.
1080
01:07:50.599 --> 01:07:53.400
The wreckage of the alien ship, glowing red now for
1081
01:07:53.519 --> 01:07:57.000
nearly its entire length, gradually cooled as the source of
1082
01:07:57.000 --> 01:08:02.079
the energy ceased generating. But it would have taken supernatural
1083
01:08:02.119 --> 01:08:05.840
intervention to reconstruct anything useful from the rubbish which had
1084
01:08:05.880 --> 01:08:09.760
been its intricate mechanism. The men who had seen the
1085
01:08:09.800 --> 01:08:12.199
same thing happen to their own ship not twenty hours
1086
01:08:12.239 --> 01:08:17.760
before did not even try to do so. The abruptness
1087
01:08:17.800 --> 01:08:20.680
with which the accident had occurred left the men stunned.
1088
01:08:21.560 --> 01:08:25.000
Not a word was spoken while the incandescence faded slowly
1089
01:08:25.039 --> 01:08:29.199
from the hull. There was nothing to say. They were
1090
01:08:29.199 --> 01:08:32.479
two hundred million miles from Earth, the asteroid would be
1091
01:08:32.520 --> 01:08:35.039
eighteen months in reaching its nearest point to the orbit
1092
01:08:35.079 --> 01:08:37.600
of Mars, and Mars would not be there at the
1093
01:08:37.640 --> 01:08:42.239
time a search party might eventually find them. Since the
1094
01:08:42.319 --> 01:08:44.840
asteroid was charted and would be known to have been
1095
01:08:44.880 --> 01:08:48.199
in their neighborhood at the time of their disappearance, that
1096
01:08:48.239 --> 01:08:52.680
would do them little good. Rocket jets of the ion
1097
01:08:52.800 --> 01:08:55.720
type are not easily visible unless matter is in the way,
1098
01:08:56.319 --> 01:09:00.720
matter either gaseous or solid. Since the planetoid was airless
1099
01:09:00.760 --> 01:09:03.640
and the Mazaar did not actually land, not even the
1100
01:09:03.760 --> 01:09:08.199
usually alert Prebble saw her approach. The first inkling of
1101
01:09:08.239 --> 01:09:11.399
her presence was the voice of her commander, echoing through
1102
01:09:11.439 --> 01:09:16.279
the earphones of the seven castaways. Hello, down there, what's
1103
01:09:16.319 --> 01:09:19.439
been going on? We saw a flare about twenty hours
1104
01:09:19.479 --> 01:09:22.159
ago on this body that looked as though an atomic
1105
01:09:22.199 --> 01:09:26.359
had misbehaved and headed this way. We circle the asteroid
1106
01:09:26.359 --> 01:09:28.560
for an hour or so, and finally did cite your
1107
01:09:28.600 --> 01:09:32.199
ship just as she did go up? Will you please
1108
01:09:32.199 --> 01:09:34.800
tell us what the other flare could have been? Or
1109
01:09:34.840 --> 01:09:38.479
didn't you see it? It was the last question that
1110
01:09:38.520 --> 01:09:41.640
proved too much for the men. They were still laughing
1111
01:09:41.720 --> 01:09:44.640
hysterically when the Mazar settled beside the wreck and took
1112
01:09:44.640 --> 01:09:50.159
them aboard. Cray alone was silent and bitter. In less
1113
01:09:50.199 --> 01:09:52.520
than a day, he said to his colleague on the
1114
01:09:52.600 --> 01:09:56.119
rescue ship, I wrecked two ships, and I have the
1115
01:09:56.199 --> 01:09:59.439
faintest idea how I wrecked either one of them. As
1116
01:09:59.479 --> 01:10:03.640
a technical I'd be a better ground car mechanic. That
1117
01:10:03.840 --> 01:10:06.359
second ship was just lying there waiting to teach me
1118
01:10:06.479 --> 01:10:08.720
more about shop technique than I'd have learned in the
1119
01:10:08.760 --> 01:10:12.960
rest of my life, and some little technical slip ruined
1120
01:10:12.960 --> 01:10:19.800
it all. But whose was the error in technique? End
1121
01:10:19.840 --> 01:10:24.880
of Part four The End of Technical Error by hal
1122
01:10:24.920 --> 01:10:25.279
Clement