"Into the ship?" Gefty shook his head decidedly. "Uh-uh. It could dump
itself out on the other side--and it almost did before it realized where
it was and what it was about to do. But the inner lock doors won't open
until someone opens them right on this panel. No, the thing's safely
trapped. On the other hand ..."
On the other hand, Gefty realized that he wouldn't now be able to bring
himself to eject the janandra out of the cargo lock and into the Great
Current. Its intentions obviously hadn't been friendly, but its level of
intelligence was as good as his own, and perhaps somewhat better; and at
present it was helpless. To dispose of it as he'd had in mind would
therefore be the cold-blooded murder of an equal. But so long as that
ugly and formidable shipmate of Maulbow's stayed in the cargo lock, the
lock couldn't be used to get rid of the control unit in the vault.
A new solution presented itself while Gefty was making a rapid and
rather desperate mental review of various heavy-duty tools which might
be employed as weapons to force the janandra into submission and haul it
off for confinement elsewhere in the ship. Not impossible, but a highly
precarious and time-consuming operation at best. Then another thought
occurred: the storage vault lay directly against the hull of the
_Queen_--
How long to cut through the hull? The ship's mining equipment was on
board, and the tools were self-powered. Climb into a spacesuit, empty
the air from the entire storage deck, leaving the janandra imprisoned in
the cargo lock ... with Maulbow incapacitated in sick bay, and Kerim
back in the control compartment and also in a suit, for additional
protection. Then cut ship's power to this deck to avoid complications
with the _Queen's_ involved circuitry and work under space
conditions--half an hour if he hurried.
* * *
"Shouldn't take more than another ten minutes," he informed Kerim
presently over the suit's intercom.
"I'm very glad to hear it, Gefty." She sounded shaky.
"Anything going on in the screens?" he asked.