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Gefty explained in a low voice,  Left side of that screen covers the lock.
Right one covers the big hall outside. No lights in either at the moment, so
you don t see anything. Only way the cargo door to the hall can be opened or
closed is with these switches right here. What I want to do is get the
janandra into the lock, slam the door on it and lock down the control
switches. Then we ve got it trapped.
 But how are you going to get it to go in there?
 No real problem I ll be three jumps ahead of it. Then I duck back up into
this cubicle, and lock both doors. And it ll be inside the lock. You have the
picture now?
Kerim said unsteadily,  I do. But it sounds awfully risky, Gefty.
 Well, I don t like it either, Gefty admitted.  So I ll start right now
before I lose my nerve. As soon as I move out into the vault hall, the
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lighting will go on. That s automatic. You watch the right side of the screen.
If you see the janandra coming before I do, yell as loud as you can.
He shifted the two inner door switches to the right. A red spark appeared in
the dark viewscreen, high up near the center. A second red light showed on the
cubicle bulkhead beside Gefty. Beneath it an oblong section of the bulkhead
turned silently away on heavy hinges, -became a door two feet in thickness,
which stood jutting out at a right angle into the darkness of the cargo lock.
A wave of cold air moved through it into the control -cubicle.
On the screen, another red spark appeared beside the first one.
 Both doors are open now, Gefty murmured to the girl.  The janandra isn t in
the vault hall or the lighting would have turned on, but it may have heard the
door open and be on its way. So keep watching the screen.
 I certainly will! she whispered shakily.
Gefty took an oversized wrench from the wall, climbed quickly and quietly down
the three ladder steps to the floor of the lock, and walked across it to the
sill of the giant freight door, which now had swung out and down into the
vault hall, fitting itself into a depression of the flooring. He hesitated an
instant on the sill, then stepped out into the big dark hall. Light filled it
immediately in both directions.
He stood quiet, intent on the storage vault entrance far up the hall to his
left. He could see the vault was open. The janandra might still be inside it.
But the seconds passed, and the dark entrance remained silent and there was no
suggestion of motion beyond it. Gefty glanced to the right, moved a dozen
steps farther out into the hall, hefted the wrench and spun it through the air
towards the ventilator frame on the opposite bulkhead.
The heavy tool clanged loudly against the frame, bounced off and thudded to
the floor. Gefty started slowly over to it, heart pounding, with the vault
entrance still at the edge of his vision.
Kerim s voice screamed,  Gefty, it s 
He spun around, sprinted back to the cargo lock. The janandra had come
silently out of the nearest side passage behind him, was approaching with the
remembered oiling swiftness of motion, its great head lifted a yard from the
floor. Gefty plunged through the lock, jumped for the top of the cubicle door
steps, came stumbling into the cubicle. Kerim was on her feet, staring. He
swung the cubicle door switch to the left, slapping it flat to the panel. The
door snapped back into the wall behind him with a force that shook the floor.
On the screen, the janandra s thick, dark worm-shape was swinging around in
the dim lock to regain the open hall. It had seen the trap. But the freight
door switch went flat beside the other, and the freight door rose with massive
swiftness. The heavy body smashed against it, went sliding back to the floor
as the door slammed shut and the screen section showing the cargo lock turned
dark.
 Got it got it got it! Gefty heard himself whispering exultantly. He switched
on the lock s interior lights.
Then he swore softly, and, beside, him, Kerim sucked in her breath.
The screen showed the janandra in violent but apparently purposeful motion
inside the lock . . . and it was also apparent now that it was a more
complexly constructed creature than the long worm-body and heavy head had
indicated. The skin, to a distance of some eight feet back of the head, had
spread out into a wide, flexible frill. From beneath the frill extended half a
dozen jointed, bone-white arms, along with waving, ribbon-like appendages less
easy to define. The thing was reared half up along the hall door, inspecting
its surface with these members; then suddenly it flung itself around and
flashed over to the outer lock door. Three arms shot out; wiry fingers caught
the three spin locks simultaneously, began to whirl them.
Gefty said, staring,  Kerim, it s going to . . . 
The janandra didn t. The motion checked suddenly, was reversed. The locks drew
tight again. The janandra swung back from the door, lifting half its length
upwards, big head weaving about as it inspected the tool racks overhead. An
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arm reached suddenly, snatched something from one of the racks. Then the thing
turned again; and in the next instant its head filled the viewscreen. Kerim
made a choked sound of fright, jerking back against Gefty. The bulging,
metal-green eyes seemed to stare directly at him. And the screen went black.
Kerim whispered,  Wha . . . what happened, Gefty?
Gefty swallowed, said,  It smashed the view pickup. Must have guessed we were
watching and didn t like it . . .  He added,  I was beginning to think
Maulbow must be some kind of superman. But it wasn t any remote control magic
of his that let the janandra out of the vault, and opened the intership locks
when it came up to the main deck and followed us down again. It was doing all
that for itself. It s Maulbow s partner, not his pet. And it s probably got at
least as good a brain as anyone else on board behind that ugly face.
Kerim moistened her lips.  Can it . . . could it get out again?
 Into the ship? Gefty shook his head decidedly.  Uh-uh. It could dump itself
out on the other side and it almost did before it realized where it was and
what it was about to do. But the inner lock doors won t open until someone
opens them right on this panel. No, the thing s safely trapped. On the other
hand . . . 
On the other hand, Gefty realized that he wouldn t now be able to bring
himself to eject the janandra out of the cargo lock and into the Great
Current. Its inten-tions obviously hadn t been friendly, but its level of
intelligence was as good as his own, and perhaps somewhat better; and at
present it was helpless. To dispose of it as he d had in mind would therefore
be the cold-blooded murder of an equal. But so long as that ugly and
formidable shipmate of Maulbow s stayed in the cargo lock, the lock couldn t
be used to get rid of the control unit in the vault.
A new solution presented itself while Gefty was making a rapid and rather
desperate mental review of various heavy-duty tools which might be employed as
weapons to force the janandra into submission and haul it off for confinement
elsewhere in the ship. Not impossible, but a highly precarious and
time-consuming operation at best. Then another thought occurred: the safety [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]