The grey haired officer shook his head. "None. Only the medical
instruments here."
Aram ransacked the wall cabinets and produced a single small scalpel.
"This will have to do," he muttered.
"If we can reach the pit," said Kant Mikal, "the steelite doors may
give us enough time to get clear. They're disintegrator-resistant."
"Let's go," said Aram tensely. "Ready?"
Deve and Mikal nodded and followed him as he opened the door to the
corridor and stepped out. The tunnel was deserted, but there were
muffled sounds of fighting coming through the ventilators. Aram
sprinted toward the pit, his bare feet soundless on the stone floor.
Deve and Mikal ran silently beside him.
As they came to a turn in the tube, a single Green seemed to appear out
of nowhere. Aram had a fleeting glimpse of a pistol being raised and he
felt the hot, searing touch of a graze as he launched himself bodily at
the man.
There was a crashing roar as the tetrol shell exploded harmlessly
against the stone wall of the tunnel, sending echoes reverberating down
the long passageway. Aram caught the Green in the pit of the stomach
with the full force of his charge. The man doubled up painfully,
dropping his weapon to the floor. Aram rolled to his feet, catlike.
The Green roared with rage and lunged at him. Aram stepped under the
attack and brought his two clenched fists down on the back of the man's
neck. The Green staggered and spun about, catching Aram in a vise-like
embrace. The policeman was huge, and as his arms closed about Aram's
lighter frame, Aram could feel his ribs being crushed. His hand closed
on the scalpel he had thrust into the waistband of his shorts. He
raised it high and drove it hard into the man's broad back. The Green
stiffened. With an incredulous expression, he released Aram and toppled
to the stone floor.
Aram leaned against the wall of the tunnel, panting, sickened. His
hands were red with blood. From somewhere down the tunnel came the
sound of booted feet clattering on the stones. Suddenly another Green
rounded the turn, an energy rifle in his hands. Aram straightened
for the expected attack, but the Green stopped abruptly, his head
vanishing into a red smear as another crashing roar echoed down the
corridor. As he sank to the floor, Aram turned to see Kant Mikal
lowering the first Green's still smoking pistol.
"Let's keep going," Mikal muttered breathlessly.
Stopping only to pick up the fallen Green's rifle, Aram, Kant Mikal and
Deve ran on toward the pit.
"Will the others try to make the spaceport?" gasped Jerrold as they ran.
"There's nowhere else to go," returned Mikal simply.
* * * * *
The Greens had not completely occupied the tunnels, for they met no
more opposition. The sounds of fighting had stopped, though, as they
burst into the large chamber that housed the spacecraft, and Aram
realized that the Greens were gathering their forces for an attempt to
prevent the Group's escape in the vessels. Aram looked about him with
a sick heart. Of the original forty-five that had been in the tunnels
before the attack, only ten besides himself and Deve had reached the
pit. The others, they told him, had been killed or captured by the
Greens, and one of them must have been forced to tell of the spaceships
and the plan of escape through the locks.
The steelite doors of the pit were closed, and the remnants of the
Group straggled aboard the Star Cluster. Kant Mikal took immediate
command of the ship and made ready for the perilous passage through the
locks to the sea above. He laid a hand on Aram's shoulder and spoke
with feeling. "This isn't the way I planned it, Jerrold, but we must do
the best we can. Good luck!"
Aram helped rig the Star Cluster for flight and then stepped down onto
the floor of the pit. He realized only too well, as he stood with Deve
alone on the floor of the vast chamber, that they would have to wait
until the heavy Star Cluster had cleared the locks before they could
blast free of the cavern in the Serpent.
He helped Deve through the valve of the small scout ship and hoisted
himself up, crouching in the open lock with the dead Green's energy
rifle, ready to pick off the first Green to come through the door. The
Greens had brought their disintegrators into play, and within minutes
the door would reach its limit of endurance. The steelite panels
already glowed red....
The Star Cluster lifted from its cradle with a hissing roar that set
the smaller Serpent to trembling. The first lock opened above it and
it was gone into the black maw of the vertical shaft, its tail-flare
vanishing in the stygian darkness. The lock did not close, and Aram
Jerrold breathed a silent message of thanks to Kant Mikal who had left
it open to ease the Serpent's escape.
"How long will it take them to clear the remaining locks?" Jerrold
asked Deve anxiously.
Deve divined his thoughts, and shook her head. "More time than it will
take the Greens to cut through that door!"