Animal shook his head. "No. There's a lot of ways to die, and this one has to beat rotting away in bed as an old man."
Jon closed his eyes and leaned his head back. The thick air made his lungs gurgle slightly. "What then?"
"Look, Pirate. When we make orbit and everyone gets off on the shuttles except for the skeleton crew, air won't be a problem anymore—neither will water."
"So?"
"That'll give the crew time enough to repair the deep space communications—maybe even the emergency signal beacon. Anyway, we should be able to call for help after a few days."
Jon nodded. "That's what we're hoping. We can do it if we can get these shuttle engines to work together making a good orbit."
"I've been thinking—or trying to think—the way old Karl would. There's not another star system within fifty light-years of this one, and I'll bet you anything this one has a habitable planet."
"Why?"
"I think Karl wants to maroon the show. Allow the show to make it down alive, then just let the circus piddle away. How long would it take for a bunch of people trying to survive to forget all about circuses?"
Jon shook his head. "If we can get things working again we won't need to answer that."
Animal coughed, then nodded. "That's the way I think old Karl figured it too. You can't maroon someone if he can still yell for help."
Jon opened his eyes and looked at Animal. "You think Karl has another trick up his sleeve for us?"
Animal nodded, then let his head ease back against the bulkhead. "That's what I think."
"We've checked out practically every circuit, nut, bolt, and spring. What's left? What could we have overlooked?"
"I don't know." He shook his head. "I just don't know. We've run checks on everything possible..."
Jon frowned. "What is it?"
Animal moved his head forward. "The equipment we've been doing the checks with. Karl had enough smarts to bugger up your monitor so you wouldn't know what was going on until the pods had to be blown. What if he did the same to the other monitor and test equipment?"
"How can we check that out? Karl knew enough to reseal the engineering monitoring access doors."
Animal shrugged. "So, we unseal everything and go over it until we find something."
Jon closed his eyes, took a deep breath of the stale air, then pushed himself to his feet. "Let's get started."
Pony Red Miira returned from the number-three shuttle's bull bay and shook his head as he sat down next to Waxy and Snaggletooth. "I know they kept the gravity on in the menagerie shuttle to keep from panicking the animals, but I wonder if it might not be better to turn it off."
Snaggletooth shook his head. "They couldn't take it, Pony. At least they're quiet."
Waxy looked over at Pony. "How's Lolita?"
"The air's getting her. She's on the juice right now, but I'm afraid she'll suffocate if she lies down."
Waxy shrugged. "Take her off the juice, and she'll kick out the sides of the shuttle. The Governor know?"
Pony shook his head. "Mr. John's got enough on his mind. Snaggletooth, what about the cats?"
Snaggletooth shook his head. "All of them, the ones left, have got the wheezes. I don't figure them to last more'n two, three days."
They all looked up to see Kristina the Lion Lady enter the menagerie shuttle. She smiled at the three. "Almost seems odd to be under gravity." She cocked her head toward the back of the shuttle. "Pony, I'm going back to see my kids."
"Sure."
The three waited in embarrassed silence until Kristina had made the turn and had disappeared between the lashed-down cage wagons. Waxy rubbed his nose, then leaned back against a straw bale. "Kris grew up with them cats. Her momma used to make them dance the hoops, remember?"
Snaggletooth nodded. "Sure. I remember when Momma Kris's old man got clawed. What was his name?"
Pony frowned. "Charlie. Wasn't with us long, was he?"
Snaggletooth shook his head. "Those cats're gonna die, Pony. Kris won't take it easy."
Pony raised his eyebrows and nodded. "At least the horses and most of the bulls are holding up. Too bad about the apes—" Seven shots in quick succession deafened the three animal men, startling the animals into howls, roars, and screams. Before the three had made it to their feet, an eighth shot slammed against their eardrums. Pony rushed between the cage wagons, saw Kristina crumpled on the deck, then stopped as he saw the lions in their two cage wagons, limp and dead. He stooped over, turned Kristina over on her back, then noted the eight-shot Kaeber in her hand, and the tiny hole in her right temple.
Grabbit Kuumic, Boss Property Man, held the bulb box in his hands and frowned at Waco Whacko. "I dunno, Waco. We're supposed to dump all this stuff to lighten the ship."
Waco stared at the Boss Property Man with dark-circled brown eyes. "I don't want the bulbs, Grabbit; just the box."
"Well, what do you need it for?"
Waco's hands shot out and grabbed the box, pulling it out of Grabbit's grasp. "You want to know?" He opened the box, removed the six main lighting-array bulbs, and let them float in the air. "If you want to know, come with me!" He turned and followed the snake charmer into the main center corridor toward the family quarters. Waco pulled himself into one of the doors lining the corridor. Grabbit stopped at the door and looked into the compartment. Strapped down on four cots, five to a cot, were Waco's twenty snakes from Ssendiss. They all looked to be asleep. Waco went to one of the cots and stroked one of the snakes. "Hassih, I have the box."
The snake opened its eyes, emitted a hiss, then closed them. Waco hung his head, then opened the box. He reached into the coil of one of the snakes, withdrew an egg, placed it into one of the box's compartments, then moved on to another snake. Grabbit frowned. "What is it, Waco? Are they all right?"
"They're dead... all of them, now. It's the air."
Grabbit shook his head. "I'm sorry, Waco. What about the eggs? Is there something I can do?"
"No." Waco went to another snake and withdrew another egg from deep in the reptile's coil. "All I needed was the box. I can't have those eggs floating around in here; they'll get damaged."
"What'll you do with them, Waco? How long do they take to hatch?"
Waco placed another egg into the box. There were five of them, fist-sized and bright blue. He closed the box and held it with both hands. "The way we reckon time, Grabbit, these eggs will take close to two hundred and seventy years to hatch. Whatever happens, I have to see that they get taken care of. I promised them." He turned his head toward the dead snakes.
Grabbit shook his head. "Waco, you'll be long gone by then. Who's to take care of them when you're in the big lot?"
"My sons and daughters, and their sons and daughters."
"You married?"
"Not yet. But I will be." He turned toward the dead snakes, closed his eyes and shook his head. "I promise these eggs will hatch, Hassih, Sstiss, Nissa... all of you. You won't be forgotten."
Grabbit pulled his way out of the doorway and left the snake charmer alone.
FORTY
Route Book, O'Hara's Greater Shows May 2nd, 2148
En route to star system 9-1134. Six days to go. Artificial gravity power supply has been rigged to crack water, releasing oxygen. This has helped the breathing some, but leaves us even shorter on water.
Peru Abner Bolin looked up from his bunk to see the Clown Alley gang gathered around. He turned to Cholly. "What is this, Cholly? A wake?"
"Peru, maybe we can get the gravity turned on in here, or at least we can move you to the menagerie shuttle—"
"No, no. Boys, the breathing's a lot easier without the gravity."
"Can't Bone Breaker do anything?"