Part 6 (1/2)
It took quite a while to get where he was going, since it involved hiding and ducking two or three more times along the way, but he finally reached the big compartment where the water repurifiers were. He climbed up the ladder to the top of the reserve tank, opened the hatch, and emptied the contents of the jar into the s.h.i.+p's water supply.
”That ought to do it,” he said to himself. Smiling, he carefully smashed the jar and dropped the fragments down the waste chute. He surveyed his handiwork for a moment, then turned and headed back.
He hadn't been seen going down, and he didn't want to be seen going out.
If anyone even suspected that he had tampered with the water supply, all they would have to do would be to run the water through the purifiers.
That would undo everything Wayne had been carefully preparing.
He made his way safely back up to the main deck and headed through the quiet s.h.i.+p toward the airlock. He wasn't so lucky this time; a guard saw him.
”Where you goin', Captain?” the guard demanded, starting to lift his gun. ”Seems to me you ought to be in the brig, and--”
Wayne made no reply. He brought his gun up in a rapid motion and beamed the man down. The guard toppled, a hurt expression on his face.
Wayne raced to the airlock. He didn't bother with a s.p.a.cesuit--not _now_, when he knew that the air was perfectly harmless outside. He opened the inner door, closed it, and opened the outer door.
Then, grinning gleefully, he pressed the b.u.t.ton that would start the pumping cycle. The outer door started to close automatically, and Wayne just barely managed to get outside and onto the ladder before it clanged shut. As soon as the great hatch had sealed itself, the pumps started exhausting the air from the airlock. No one could open the doors until the pumping cycle was over.
He climbed down the ladder and began walking over toward the western wall. He would have to keep away from the s.h.i.+p for a while, and the rocks were as good a place as any to hide out.
It was dark. Fomalhaut had set, leaving the moonless planet in utter blackness, broken only by the cold gleam of the stars. The lights streaming from the portholes of the _Lord Nelson_ gave a small degree of illumination to the valley.
The valley. It was spread out before him, calm and peaceful, rippling dunes of sand curling out toward the mountains. The valley, he knew, was a betrayer--calm and quiet above, alive with an army of hideous vermin a few feet below its surface.
He started to walk, and moistened his lips. He knew he was going to get awfully thirsty in the next few hours, but there was not the slightest help for it. There hadn't been any way to carry water from the s.h.i.+p.
”I can wait,” he told himself. He stared back at the circular bulk of the _Lord Nelson_ behind him, and his fingers trembled a little. He had known, when he joined the Corps, that s.p.a.ce was full of traps like this one--but this was the first time he had actually experienced anything like this. It was foul.
Something slammed into his boot sole, and this time Wayne knew what it was.
”Persistent, aren't you!” He jerked his foot up. This monster hadn't stuck as the other one had, but he saw the tip of the needle-beak thras.h.i.+ng around wildly in the loose sand. Wayne thumbed the gun up to full power, and there was a piercing shriek as the gun burned into the sand. There was a sharp shrill sound, and the odor of something burning.
He spat.
The little beasts must be all over the floor of the valley! Scurrying frantically, like blood-red giant crabs, sidling up and down beneath the valley, searching upward for things to strike at. How they must hate his metamagnetic boots, he thought!
He kept on walking, expecting to feel the impact of another thrust momentarily, but he was not molested again. _They must be getting wise_, he thought. _They know they can't get through my boots, and so they're leaving me alone. That way they don't call attention to themselves._
A new, more chilling question struck him:
_Just how smart are they?_
He had made it to the wall and was climbing up the treacherous slope when the airlock door opened, and someone stood outlined in the bright circle of light that cut into the inky blackness. An amplified voice filled the valley and ricocheted back off the walls of the mountains, casting eerie echoes down on the lone man on the desert.
”CAPTAIN WAYNE! THIS IS COLONEL PETERSEN SPEAKING. DON'T YOU REALIZE THAT YOU'RE A SICK MAN? YOU MAY DIE OUT THERE. COME BACK. THAT'S AN ORDER, CAPTAIN. REPEAT: COME BACK. THAT'S AN ORDER!”
”I'm afraid an order from you just doesn't hold much weight for me right now, Colonel,” Wayne said quietly, to himself. Silently he went on climbing the escarpment, digging into the rough rock.