"Well, I don't like it either," Gefty admitted. "So I'll start right now
before I lose my nerve. As soon as I move out into the vault hall, the
lighting will go on. That's automatic. You watch the right side of the
screen. If you see the janandra coming before I do, yell as loud as you
can."
He shifted the two inner door switches to the right. A red spark
appeared in the dark viewscreen, high up near the center. A second red
light showed on the cubicle bulkhead beside Gefty. Beneath it an oblong
section of the bulkhead turned silently away on heavy hinges, became a
door two feet in thickness, which stood jutting out at a right angle
into the darkness of the cargo lock. A wave of cold air moved through it
into the control cubicle.
On the screen, another red spark appeared beside the first one.
"Both doors are open now," Gefty murmured to the girl. "The janandra
isn't in the vault hall or the lighting would have turned on, but it may
have heard the door open and be on its way. So keep watching the
screen."
"I certainly will!" she whispered shakily.
Gefty took an oversized wrench from the wall, climbed quickly and
quietly down the three ladder steps to the floor of the lock, and walked
across it to the sill of the giant freight door, which now had swung out
and down into the vault hall, fitting itself into a depression of the
flooring. He hesitated an instant on the sill, then stepped out into the
big dark hall. Light filled it immediately in both directions.
He stood quiet, intent on the storage vault entrance far up the hall to
his left. He could see the vault was open. The janandra might still be
inside it. But the seconds passed, and the dark entrance remained silent
and there was no suggestion of motion beyond it. Gefty glanced to the
right, moved a dozen steps farther out into the hall, hefted the wrench
and spun it through the air towards the ventilator frame on the opposite
bulkhead.
The heavy tool clanged loudly against the frame, bounced off and thudded
to the floor. Gefty started slowly over to it, heart pounding, with the
vault entrance still at the edge of his vision.