Gefty shrugged. "Depends on the mood I find it in. He said it wasn't
usually aggressive. Maybe it isn't. I'll get into a spacesuit for
protection and break out some of the mining equipment to move it along
with. If I can maneuver it into an empty compartment where it will be
out of the ..."
* * *
He broke off, expression changing, eyes fastened on the emergency panel.
Then he turned hurriedly, reached across the side of the console for the
intership airseal controls. Kerim asked apprehensively, "What's the
matter, Gefty?"
"Wish I knew ... exactly." Gefty indicated the emergency panel. "Little
red light there, on the storage deck section--it wasn't showing a minute
ago. It means that the vault doors have been opened since then."
He saw the same half-superstitious fear appear in her face that had
touched him. "You think _he_ did it?"
"I don't know." Maulbow's control of the guns had seemed uncanny enough.
But that was a different matter. The guns were a product of his own time
and science. But the vault door mechanisms? There might have been
sufficient opportunity for Maulbow to study them and alter them, for
some purpose of his own, since he'd come aboard....
"I've got the ship compartments and decks sealed off from each other
now," Gefty said slowly. "The only connecting points from one to the
other are personnel hatches--they're small air locks. So the janandra's
confined to the storage deck. If it's come out of the vault, it might be
a nuisance until I can get equipment to handle it. But that isn't too
serious. The spacesuits are on the second deck, and I'll get into one
before I go on to the storage. You wait here a moment, I'll look in on
Maulbow again before I start."
If Maulbow wasn't still unconscious, he was doing a good job of feigning
it. Gefty looked at the pale, lax face, the half-shut eyes, shook his
head and left the cabin, locking it behind him. It mightn't be Maulbow's
doing, but having the big snake loose in the storage could, in fact,
make things extremely awkward now. He didn't think his gun would make
much impression on anything of that size, and while several of the
ship's mining tools could be employed as very effective close-range
weapons, they happened, unfortunately, to be stored away on the same
deck.
He found Kerim standing in the center of the instrument room, waiting
for him.
"Gefty," she said, "do you notice anything? An odd sort of smell...."
Then the odor was in Gefty's nostrils, too, and the back of his neck
turned to ice as he recognized it. He glanced up at the ventilation
outlet, looked back at Kerim.
He took her arm, said softly, "Come this way. Keep very quiet! I don't
know how it happened, but the janandra's on the main deck now. That's
what it smells like. The smell's coming through the ventilation system,
so the thing's moving around in the port section. We'll go the other
way."