Rodney nodded, jerkily. "He pulled three more switches. I couldn't
understand it all. But--Martin, dying alone like that in a place like
this--!"
Martin crawled into the circular pipe behind the grate. It tilted up
toward the surface. "Come on, Rodney. Last lap."
An hour later they surfaced about two hundred yards away from the
edge of the city. Behind them the black pile rose, the dome of force
shimmering, almost invisible, about it.
Ahead of them were the other two scoutships from the mother ship.
Martin called out faintly, pulling Rodney out of the pipe. Crew members
standing by the scoutships, and at the edge of the city, began to run
toward them.
"Radio picked you up as soon as you entered the pipe," someone said. It
was the last thing Martin heard before he collapsed.