Part 3 (1/2)

”I'll ask the skipper as soon as the Plumie s.h.i.+p's free.”

”Y-yes,” said Diane. And she pressed her face against his shoulder, and wept.

This was at 01 hours, 20 minutes s.h.i.+p time. At 03 hours even, there was peculiar activity in the valley between the welded s.h.i.+ps. There were men in s.p.a.ce armor working cutting-torches where for twenty feet the two s.h.i.+ps were solidly attached. Blue-white flames bored savagely into solid metal, and melted copper gave off strangely colored clouds of vapor--which emptiness whisked away to nothing--and molten iron and cobalt made equally lurid clouds of other colors.

There were Plumies in the air lock, watching.

At 03 hours 40 minutes s.h.i.+p time, all the men but one drew back. They went inside the Niccola. Only one man remained, cutting at the last sliver of metal that held the two s.h.i.+ps together.

It parted. The Plumie s.h.i.+p swept swiftly away, moved by the centrifugal force of the rotary motion the joined vessels had possessed. It dwindled and dwindled. It was a half mile away. A mile. The last man on the outside of the Niccola's hull thriftily brought his torch to the air lock and came in.

Suddenly, the distant golden hull came to life. It steadied. It ceased to spin, however slowly. It darted ahead. It checked. It swung to the right and left and up and down. It was alive again.

In the radar room, Diane walked into Baird's arms and said shakily: ”Now we ... we have almost fourteen days.”

”Wait,” he commanded. ”When the Plumies understood what we were doing, and why, they drew diagrams. They hadn't thought of cutting free, out in s.p.a.ce, without the spinning saws they use to cut bronze with. But they asked for a scanner and a screen. They checked on its use. I want to see--”

He flipped on the screen. And there was instantly a Plumie looking eagerly out of it, for some sign of communication established. There were soprano sounds, and he waved a hand for attention. Then he zestfully held up one diagram after another.

Baird drew a deep breath. A very deep breath. He pressed the navigation-room call. The skipper looked dourly at him.

”Well?” said the skipper forbiddingly.

”Sir,” said Baird, very quietly indeed, ”the Plumies are talking by diagram over the communicator set we gave them. Their drive works. They're as well off as they ever were. And they've been modifying their tractor beams--stepping them up to higher power.”