From the ship's speakers came the voice of the timer.
"_It is H minus ten. Ready yourselves for the takeoff._"
I thought of Kane and the men I had known and worked with for half of
my twenty-nine years. They, too, were forbidden the sky. Tragic men,
really, with their need and their dream written in the lines of pain
and yearning on their faces.
The speaker suddenly snapped:
"_There is an illegal passenger on board! All persons will remain in
their quarters until he is apprehended! Repeat: there is an illegal
passenger on board! Remain in your quarters!_"
My heart seemed to stop beating. Somehow, my deception had been
uncovered. How, it didn't matter, but it had. And the important thing
now was simply to stay on board at all costs. A space ship departure
could not be delayed. The orbit was computed. The blastaway timed to
the millisecond....
I leaped to the deck and out of my cubicle. A spidery catwalk led
upward, toward the nose of the ship. Below me I could hear the first
sounds of the search.
I ran up the walk, my footsteps sounding hollowly in the steel shaft. A
bulkhead blocked my progress ahead and I sought the next deck.