With puny fists I pounded the panel. A small pane in it was
transparent. Within the lock I could see the blurred figures of Anita
and her captor--and it seemed, another figure there. The lock was some
ten feet square, with a low ceiling. It glowed with a dim tube-light.
I strained at it with futile, silent effort. The mechanism was here to
open this manual; but it was now clasped from within so would not
operate.
A few seconds, while I stood there in a panic of confusion, raging to
get in. This disaster had come so suddenly. I did not plan: I had no
thought save to batter my way in and rescue Anita. I recall that I
finally beat on the glassite pane with my bullet projector until the
weapon was bent and useless. And I flung it with a wild despairing
rage at my feet.
They were letting the ship's air-pressure into this lock. Soon they
would open the inner panel, step into the secondary chamber--and in a
moment more would be within the ship's hull corridor. Anita, lost to
me!
The outer panel suddenly opened! I had lunged against it with my
shoulder; the giant figure inside slid it. It was taken by surprise! I
half fell forward.
Huge arms went around me. The goggled face of the helmet peered into
mine.
"So it is you, Haljan! I thought I recognized that little device over
your helmet bracket. And here is my little Anita, come back to me
again!"
Miko!
This was he. His great bloated arms encircling me, bending me
backward, holding me helpless. I saw over his shoulder that Anita was
clutched in the grip of another helmeted figure. No giant, but tall
for an Earth man--almost as tall as myself. Then the tube light in the
room illumined the visor. I saw the face, recognized it. Moa!