Part 24 (1/2)

”... and ...” continued Electromagnetic-Manager/1.

”... and?” queried Graviton-Maker/321, puzzled by the verbosity.

”Don't ...” started Electromagnetic-Manager/1.

”. . . touch!” rumbled Graviton-Maker/321, greatly amused.

St. George was far away from the dangerous neutron star in a 100,000-kilometer orbit a third of a light-second away, so it took three turns before Electromagnetic-Manager/1 established contact with the computer on St. George using the laser communicator taken from Dragon Slayer. Once the computer realized that it was communicating directly with cheela instead of the slow-thinking humans, it rapidly repeated the message that it had been sending. The image was that of a female human with yellow hair bound into a single long braid over one shoulder. It reminded Electromagnetic-Manager/I of a ridiculous type of inbred pet Slink that had hair so long that the pet needed a robot attendant to hold its hair up, out from under its tread when it wanted to move. His console computer link identified the human as Carole Swenson, the Commander of the Dragon's Egg expedition.

”Dragon Slayer! Your last laser communicator is dead. Switch to alternate links!Dra .. .”

Electromagnetic-Manager/1 thought for a while about answering the anxious human in order to rea.s.sure her that the crew was in no immediate danger. But by the time she had finished saying the word ”Dragon Slayer,” he would have obtained permission to proceed with the rest of the mission and he could tell her the better news that the cheela were going to try to return the crew to the command s.h.i.+p, St. George. He erased the image of the human from his screen and set up a call to the Administrator of the Slow One Transport Project.

Two turns later, Electromagnetic-Manager/1 received an in-person visit by the administrator of the Slow One Transport Project. Electromagnetic-Manager/1 didn't like working with the Ancient One, who insisted on being addressed by his archaic egg-name, instead of his position.

”I am Lovely-Eyes,” said the administrator. The wrinkled hide and erratic eye-stub motion contrasted with the intense gleam from the dark red eyes.

”Coupling experiments successful,” reported Electromagnetic-Manager/1.

”Excellent!” said the administrator.

”Excellent!!” the administrator said again, unnecessarily repeating himself.

”Excellent!!!” said the administrator once again.

Electromagnetic-Manager/1 began to be concerned. The eye-stub wave pattern on Lovely-Eyes accelerated, and his hide changed color as his emotions reached the breaking point. His tread started to move again.

”Pro . ..” Suddenly four eye-b.a.l.l.s fell sightless to the deck. Electromagnetic-Manager/1 immediately realized that the ancient one had suffered a stroke affecting one of the tri-lobes of his brain-knot.

”Lovely-Eyes!” Electromagnetic-Manager/1 rushed over to a.s.sist the Ancient One. His tread'trummed an emergency call into the deck as he moved.

Eight, intense, dark red eyes stared him to a halt. They were not ”lovely eyes,” they were fanatical eyes.

”Pro ... Pro ... ceed with project.” The treading was weak, but distinct.

”Lovely-Eyes,” said Electromagnetic-Manager/1. ”I stay until medicos come.”

”Go!” came the reply. ”And call me Lovely-Eyes no longer. Call me Human-Savior.”

The great wrinkled hide shuddered and collapsed. The body of the Ancient One flowed in all directions.

When the medical robots tried to enter, their way was blocked.

After checking with Manager-Director/5, the Web-Con supervisor of the Slow One Transport contract, Electromagnetic-Manager/1 returned to the laser communicator. The human, Carole Swenson, had finished her sentence and was now looking wide-eyed at the screen as she read the message from the cheela. There wasn't time to wait for the human to react, so Electromagnetic-Manager/1 left a long message for the St. George computer and a shorter one for her.

”Dragon Slayer will be disintegrated. Six Eyes of Bright will be collapsed. Return for crew in six months.” He turned off the laser communicator, gathered his engineers and their robots, and headed for Dragon Slayer.

Void-Maker/111 arranged her robotic crew with care around the periphery of the large viewport window in the south pole of the human s.p.a.cecraft. When she received the signal from Manager-Director/5 she activated her console and the robots disintegrated the hull around the window.

The viewport blew away as the air emptied out of the s.h.i.+p. She touched her tread screen and the image of another Web-Con engineer appeared. It was Graviton-Maker/321.

”To you,” said Void-Maker/111.

”To me,” replied Graviton-Maker/321.

”Don't . ..”

”Won't.” Both of their screens rippled with laughter.

Graviton-Maker/321 set his crew of gravity robots in the path of the slowly tumbling plate of gla.s.s. This piece of high-strength gla.s.s was one of the many parts of the s.p.a.cecraft that the expanded matter scientists wanted to examine. As soon as his robots had the viewport under control, he sent some of them off with the window while he and the rest of the crew returned to Dragon Slayer. By the time he had returned, Void-Maker/111 had cut a large circular sample out of the s.p.a.cecraft hull. The task of capturing the circular piece of hull was so similar to the task of catching the viewport that Graviton-Maker/321 did not even bother to monitor the robots. They were faster thinking and more intelligent than he was when it came to doing their job.

Electromagnetic-Manager/1and his team had arrived and Graviton-Maker/321 joined them as they entered the hole where the viewport had been. They all felt a little uneasy as they entered the dark interior of the s.h.i.+p. Not only was the friendly glare of Egg gone, but they could no longer see the sky.

”Human Protection Tank 6 ahead,” said Electromagnetic-Manager/1 to his team as they floated into the center of the cylindrical room. ”Take over control.”

A team of electromagnetic engineers brought up their generators. Each team was a.s.signed a disinto engineer whose crew of robots were used to clear a path through the walls and cut the cables. In a few dothturns they had cut free Tank 6 containing Abdul from the main hull, had replaced the s.h.i.+p's power to the tank with their own, and had inserted their own optical link in the fiber optic connection to the rest of the tanks.

Electromagnetic-Manager/1 monitored the video transmission channel and looked once again at a human as seen in their own region of the visual spectrum. This human was very different from Carole, the Commander of the human expedition. The hair on top of this human's head-lump was short and black instead of long and yellow. But instead of the ridiculously long thick braid coming out of the top of the head-lump, this human had a ridiculously long string of hair in the middle of the head-lump. The face was dark colored, and the pupils of the eyes seemed very wide open. Electromagnetic-Manager/1 wondered if the look of the human was due to the breathing mask that the humans had to wear under water, or whether something else had caused it.

04:02:39 GMT WEDNESDAY 22 JUNE 2050.

”I lost power for a second!” said Abdul, just short of panic. ”What's going on?”

”The cheela have breached the hull and are wandering around inside Dragon Slayer,” said Pierre.

”I sure hope they know what they are doing!” Abdul replied.

04:02:40 GMT WEDNESDAY 22 JUNE 2050.

Manager-Director/5 set up a conference link with her team leaders.

”All tanks separated,” said Void-Manager/18.

”All tanks powered,” said Electromagnetic-Manager/1.

”All samples obtained,” said Science-Manager/23.

”Monopole generators ready,” said Monopole-Manager/4.

”Inertia pushers ready,” said Graviton-Manager/53.