He gasped, his fingers tightening on the hybrid's huge arm. The scraggy
bearded face had been pushed back, revealing beneath the disguise
Gena's beautiful features.
"Come!" she said sharply, drawing forth a similar hybrid disguise from
within the garment. "Get into this, Earthman. We have no time to lose.
We must get away from here before Zuggoth returns."
Hammond and Storm obeyed with alacrity. They got into the hybrid
costumes Zuggoth's Sediphrons had used to plant themselves in Gena's
ship. They padded out the huge left arm with a soft, cottonlike
material they found in the laboratory. Ardiné helped them in the task.
In the meantime Gena disappeared in a closet-like room at the far end
of the laboratory. When she returned she held two strange-looking metal
objects, like long, dull tubes with a dial face and a knob. She tucked
these away under her costume without explaining.
Ardiné, also, had been foraging. She came back to them with what seemed
like two small flashlights. Her voice was hurried. "The size reducing
and expanding ray guns. Perhaps we'll have use for them."
Gena nodded. Her voice was quick, determined. "Earthmen, Ardiné and I
are going to make an attempt to capture Zuggoth's ship, and escape back
to Mars. The _Vandar III_ is being repaired, but it will take hours.
Our only hope is the unharmed Sediphron craft."
Hammond caught up one of the electronic rifles. "We're with you, Gena,"
he said grimly. "Lead the way!"
* * * * *
The door dilated open as they approached. A moment later they were
marching stiffly down a long corridor.
Hammond gripped the electronic rifle he had taken from Cuzzvi, his eyes
hard under the strange optical openings in the hybrid mask. The ship
was swarming with Sediphrons, searching for the girls who had escaped
from Zuggoth's harem. At any moment--
As if in answer to his worst fears a Sediphron squad appeared from a
side corridor. They halted abruptly. The leader eyed the insignia on
Gena's arm. Then he raised his huge left arm at a diagonal across his
chest, evidently in salute.
Gena's thoughts rasped: "The engine rooms. The First One orders. The
escaped Metiphrons have been sighted."
The Sediphron guard wheeled, went down the corridor at a shuffling
gait. Hammond relaxed, feeling sweat in the palms of his hands, on his
brow.
"This way!" Gena ordered. They cut down the side corridor from which
the guard had emerged, and took a long ramp downward. Several times
they met squads of the ugly crustaceans, but their disguise and Gena's
harsh commands got them by.
They were well down in the ship, cutting across a big machine room,
deserted by the Metiphron workers who tended the whirring machines
when Gena halted. Ardiné and the Earthmen waited while she darted
down a long aisle and vanished into a smaller room beyond where a huge,
turbine-like thing of glinting metal spun with high-pitched hum.
The girl-commander had withdrawn one of the dull metal tubes before
leaving them. She turned the knob, which moved the dial hand, evidently
setting it to desired position.
Several minutes later she was back without the tube.