Part 12 (2/2)

”They're just out temporarily, not hurt,” answered Joe. ”Airbots disrupt certain neural connections to bring on sleep and complete relaxation of all muscle functions. I'm not sure how high the airbot's beam was set, but I'd guess pretty high. They'll probably sleep for several hours but they'll be fine when they wake up.”

”What did you do to that machine that was chasing us?” asked another of St. George's companions.

”I didn't do anything to it. I don't know what happened to it,”

answered Zip. ”I suppose it malfunctioned. Lucky for us.” Joe and Mark both glanced sidelong at Zip, then looked away. The Starmen knew that whatever had happened to the airbot, a malfunction was not one of the possibilities.

Another of the miners spoke up. ”I've never been on an elevator that moved horizontally before. Where are we going, George? This transit is taking longer than just moving between floors.”

”The elevators inside this rock can move in just about any direction except slantindicular. If I remembered accurately, this one'll take us to a control and information center of some kind. I don't know where it is in relation to where we started, but we should be safe there and if I don't forget where we come out, I can always get us back to the warehouse if we want to return.”

The elevator came to a stop and the door opened onto darkness. As before, the elevator light illumined a small s.p.a.ce, in which the men could see a few counters. When the first pa.s.senger debarked, soft lights went on. The illumination revealed a room of about 2,000 square feet, filled with viewscreens, computer stations, cabinets and shelves, tables and chairs, and a few sofas. At least a dozen doors led from the room. The four unconscious men were laid carefully down onto the sofas.

”What is this place?” Zip asked St. George.

”Haven't any idea, Starman. I don't mind pus.h.i.+ng b.u.t.tons at random when it comes to elevators, but you won't find me playing with any machine I don't understand. I don't want to find the ejection seat or rocket launchers by accident.”

”What do you think, Mark, Joe? Let's look around here.” The Starmen began to examine the keyboards and control systems spread throughout the room. There were symbols written beside most of the controls, but none of the writing was recognizable.

”Alien writing,” observed Mark. ”I'd sure like to know what it says.”

Joe was at the next console, thoughtfully pressing b.u.t.tons, but there was no response.

”We need to find food and water,” said one of the others.

”Right,” said Zip. ”Everyone check through the shelves and cabinets.

Open the doors, too, and look through, but don't go anywhere.” Zip didn't speak aloud what was on his mind. The workings of the asteroid, no matter how technologically advanced, had been abandoned for probably thousands of years. There could be no water or food anywhere except where the pirates were. The Starmen and miners may have escaped captivity, but their freedom would do them no good until they found food, water, and a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. Success in finding even one of those items without being recaptured was highly unlikely. And even if they could board a s.h.i.+p, escape from the asteroid was just about impossible.

He wondered how long it would take before someone else realized these things and voiced them.

”There's nothing, Mr. Foster,” said one of the men after everyone had searched thoroughly.

”Mm hmm,” Zip nodded. ”Well, let's sleep and start again in the morning. Maybe some of us can go back to the warehouse and open up a few of those crates. There may be food and water in some of them.

Others can investigate some of the pa.s.sages that lead away from here.”

The men arranged themselves around the room and lay down. ”I think I found the light switch, anyway,” said Joe and pressed a b.u.t.ton next to one of the doorways. The room became dark.

”I a.s.sure you, Mr. Zimbardo, there was nothing wrong with the airbot,”

a.s.serted a large man, standing before the pirate leader with a half dozen of his partners. ”I don't know what threw it back into the elevator shaft and I don't know what made it explode-but there was nothing wrong with it. The prisoners must have done something to it.”

”These prisoners are more than asteroid miners! None of St. George's men has the capability of knocking out two armed men the way those two were knocked out. None of them has the know-how to disable a airbot!”

Zimbardo turned to his chief control officer. ”Gene! Get me Lather right away. Tell him to bring up all information he has on the prisoners he brought in from Z25. Tell him to bring especially the video-record of the prisoners.” He turned back to the others. ”You're dismissed!”

Soon Lather appeared with a handful of records.

”Let's see the video-record first,” said Zimbardo, and pushed his computer a little closer to his lieutenant. The man inserted the disk.

In seconds, a view of the prisoners appeared on the screen, each one shuffling by as they entered the Silver Cloud.

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