“I’m amazed they aren’t trying something,” he said again. They’d both been saying that for nearly an hour.
“Derec…I think they’re all gone.”
It could be. But-”Dead?” he asked.
Many were. Ariel shook her head, though. “I don’t think so. I think they must have Jumped out at the height of the battle. “
Leaning forward, Derec eagerly scanned such of the surroundings as were visible, trying to count the hulls. It was no use. “I don’t know how many hulls there were, and they all look different now. The central one, I suppose, had the hyperatomic motors. Maybe some of the other hulls did, too. I don’t think there’s more than one hull missing, though.”
“You agree, then?” she asked, worried.
“I agree,” he said. “Knowing Aranimas, if he were alive and here, he’d be shooting at us. With something.”
“Yes.” She was silent for a moment. “It’s not likely that all that damage could have been done by Mandelbrot.”
Wolruf had dropped the robot off when she had braked sufficiently to bring the relative motion of the ships down to a level Mandelbrot’s rockets could handle. The robot had made a landing on the alien ship, damaging one knee joint, and then had swarmed allover it, planting explosive charges at the joins of the hulls. The mighty ship had simply broken up.
“We already know that there were explosive charges at the hull connections,” Derec said. Aranimas had dropped one of his hulls to make his escape at Rockliffe Station.
“Yes. He must have blown them all, got his central hull free, and Jumped.”
“If he Jumped blind, he could be anywhere in the universe,” Derec said. “Let’s hope he never finds his way back!”
It wasn’t something they could count on.
Half an hour later, Mandelbrot called them on the radio and suggested that they go lock-to-lock with Wolruf’s ship. Presently, Ariel brought them together, Mandelbrot guiding them, and the open airlocks grated together. They were compatible, and with a little nudging clanked into position.
“This join will not hold air long,” observed the robot. “We must charge it, and Wolruf must move fast, despite the bag.”
They had been pumping their leaking air into bottles, to save at least some of it. Derec took one of the bottles to the lock, shoved its bayonet fitting into the lock’s emergency valve, and opened the bottle. Presently Wolruf banged on the inner door, the outer door clanking shut behind her. Derec let the air continue to hiss to equalize pressure-but the bottle went empty first.
Muttering, he jerked it out of the emergency valve, which closed automatically, and turned to the manual spill valve. It took a good grip to hold that open, but after a moment pressure was equal and they hadn’t lost much of their precious air.
Wolruf entered in a transparent plastic balloon, now half deflated under cabin pressure. She looked a little short of breath-or scared; Derec certainly couldn’t blame her. Itcould not have been easy to flounder in free-fall, inside that balloon, through the other ship and the twinned locks.
The little caninoid emerged from the release zipper with a shake, saying, “Thank ‘ou. Itwass a nervous time. I ‘ave grreat fearr of the Erani.”
“We think Aranimas is gone,” said Ariel.
“I ‘ope so, but I do not understand.”
Ariel explained tersely.
“He would sshoot, if he could,” Wolruf agreed.
Mandelbrot’s voice came over the radio. “I will enter the other ship and bring forth what items I can,” he said. “You will need more organic feedstock for the food synthesizers, and of course air. Perhaps it would be wise to explore the alien ship also.”
That was a thought. Itmade Derec more than a little nervous, and he could see that Ariel wasn’t much happier.
“That wreckage is grinding around a good bit. Still, the bigger pieces are getting farther and farther away from each other,” she said. “It should be safe-as things go.”
“That apartment back on Earth looks more and more cozy every minute,” said Derec with a weak laugh.
“I sstay behind and fly ship,” said Wolruf. “I glad to do thiss; do not thank me!”
Laughing crazily, they floundered into their suits and crowded into the airlock with Wolruf’s plastic bag. Normally it was used to convey perishable items across vacuum. Now they pumped it up to half cabin pressure, pushed it up against the inner door of the lock, and started the lock pumps. As soon as lock pressure fell below half cabin pressure, the bag began to push them against the outer door.
Their suits braced them against the push, and the expansion of the balloon speeded the removal of the air outside of the bag from the lock. When the outer door was opened they were shoved out-Ariel just quick enough to grab a handhold on the door, Derec grabbing her foot. Laughing again, they shoved the balloon back inside and slammed the lock.
Their first item was to transfer the undamaged antennas of Wolruf’s ship to their own, and to replace the burnt-out or smashed eyes. The two ships floated near to each other, linked by the light, strong line. Derec had brought tools, and also made a stop-gap repair on Mandelbrot’s knee. An hour of work saw that completed, while the pieces of the alien ship got farther and farther away.
They squeezed back inside the ship to rest, recharge their air, and eat. Ariel said tiredly, “How did you come to be here-near Earth-Wolruf?”
The caninoid snapped hungrily at synthetic cabbage. “When ‘ou Jump with Key, I hear static hyperwave. I hear two burrsts static, and I get fix on one. I expect it to be Robot City, but iss not. We know coordinatess of Robot City. It a long way away, but Mandelbrrot and I Jump to follow. Dangerouss, one long Jump. But we darrre not make more, orr we lose bearings. Sso one Jump all we take.”
She paused to gulp more food. They were used to her table manners.
“When we arrive at Earth, Mandelbrot make identification. He lissten to broadcasst-hyperwave still not worrking-and tell me, iss Earth, and explain Earth. We do not have to wonderr for long if thiss where ‘ou went with Key. I hear two more burrstss static, close together, same place: Earth. I not know how ‘ou use Key so close together.”
“Simple,” said Derec. He was tired and his head felt unduly light, even more than free-fall would explain. “The Key was focused on that apartment. Using it to leave anyplace else, even on the same planet, takes you back to the apartment. We won’t starve-if necessary we can always go back to Number 21, Sub-Corridor 16, Corridor M, SubSection a, Section 5, of Webster Groves, in St. Louis City.”
“Anyway, we wait. After a while, though, we detect hyperwave burrst of Aranimas’s sship arriving, and we know therre will be trrouble. He also had detected Key use.”
“How long has he known how to do that?” Ariel asked.
Wolruf shrugged. “Possible he always knew. Aranimass not one for saying all he know. Or more likely he learrned since we left him at Rockliffe Station. Is obviouss when ‘ou think about it.”
“How so?” Ariel asked sharply.
“Obviouss, Key must be hyperatomic motor,” said Wolruf, and Derec interrupted.
“I don’t think so. The robots of Robot City learned to duplicate them-they may even have made the Key we have. I don’t think humans or their robots could duplicate any such radical advance in science and technology as would be represented by the reduction of a hyperatomic motor to pocket size. I think the Keys are very compact hyperwave radios. These subetherics trigger the hyperatomic motors, which are elsewhere, and focused on the Keys.’.’
“Ah, ‘ou think motors are in Perihelion?”