With fine consideration Captain Yancey had elected to pick up Thurlow and Dodson before rendezvousing with the second jeep. Once they were inside, the Aes Triplex moved toward 1987-CD and matched orbits. Sublieutenant Peters had elected to expend some of his get-away fuel and had matched orbits also.
Matt fidgeted while the second jeep was brought into the ship. He could see nothing, since the ports were covered, and for the moment had no assigned duties. With maddening deliberation Captain Yancey secured his ship to the Pathfinder, sending a line over by Sublieutenant Gomez. The rest of the ship's company was crowded into the control room. Tex and Matt took the opportunity to question Sublieutenant Peters.
"Couldn't tell much," he informed them. "Off hand, she looks undamaged, but the door of the lock was standing open."
"Any chance anyone is alive inside?" asked Tex.
"Possible. Hardly likely."
Captain Yancey looked around. "Pipe down," he ordered. "This is a control room, not a sewing circle." When he had finished he ordered Peters and Gomez to come with him; the three suited up and left the ship.
They were gone about an hour. When they returned the Captain called them all into the mess room. "I am sorry to tell you, gentlemen, that none of our comrades is alive."
He went on heavily, "There is not much doubt as to what happened. The outer armored door of the lock was open and undamaged. The inner door had been punched through by a missile about the' size of my fist, producing explosive decompression in the connecting compartments. Apparently they had had the enormous bad luck to have a meteor enter the ship through the door just as it was opened."
"Wait a minute, Skipper," objected Miller. "Was every airtight door in the ship wide open? One rock shouldn't have done the trick."
"We couldn't get into the after part of the ship; it still holds pressure. But we could reconstruct what happened, because we could count the bodies- seven of them, the entire ship's company. They were all near the lock and not in spacesuits, except for one man in the lock-his suit was pierced by a fragment apparently. The others seem to have been gathered at the lock, waiting for him to come in." Yancey looked grave. "Red, I think we are going to have to put in a recommended technical order over this- something to require personnel to spread out while suit operations are going on, so that an accident to the lock won't affect the entire ship's company."
Miller frowned. "I suppose so, Captain. Might be awkward to comply with, sometimes, in a small ship."
"It's awkward to lose your breath, too. Now about the investigation-you'll be the president, Red, and Novak and Brunn will be your other two members. The rest of us will remain in the ship until the board has completed its work. When they have finished and have removed from the Pathfinder anything needed as evidence I will allow sufficient time for each of you to satisfy his curiosity."
"How about the surgeon, Captain? I want him for an expert witness."
"Okay, Red. Dr. Pickering, you go with the board."
The cadets crowded into the stateroom shared by Matt and Oscar. "Can you beat it?" said Tex. "Of all the cheap tricks! We have to sit in here, a week or ten days, maybe, while a board measures how big a hole there is in the door."
"Forget it, Tex," advised Oscar. "I figure the Old Man didn't want you carving your initials in things, or maybe snagging the busted door for a souvenir, before they found out what the score was."
"Oh, nuts!"
"Quit crabbing. He promised you that you could snoop around and take pictures and satisfy your ghoulish appeties as soon as the board is finished. In the meantime, enjoy . the luxury of eight hours of sleep for a change. No watches, none of any sort."
, "Say, that's right!" agreed Matt. "I hadn't thought about it, but there's no point in watching for rocks when you're tied down and can't duck."
"As the crew of the Pathfinder know only too well."
Last Muster was held for the Pathfinder on the following day. The bodies themselves had been sealed into a compartment of the dead ship; muster took place in the wardroom of the Aes Triplex. It was rather lengthy, as it was necessary to read the services of three different faiths before the Captain concluded with the Patrol's own all-inclusive farewelclass="underline" "Now we shape our orbit home-"
It so happened that there were just enough persons present to answer the roll. The Aes Triplex's company was a captain and eleven others. For the Pathfinder there were exactly eleven-six patrol officers, one civilian planetologist, and the Four who are present at every muster. Captain Yancey called off the Pathfinder's roll and the others answered, one after the other, from Commander Miller down to Tex-while The Long Watch, muted down to a requiem, played softly over the ship's speaker system.
Matt found his throat almost too dry to answer. Tex's chubby cheeks ran with tears and he made no effort to wipe them.
Lieutenant Brunn was a source of information for the first couple of days of the investigation. He described the Pathfinder as in good shape, except for the damaged door. On the third day he suddenly shut up. "The Captain doesn't want the board's findings discussed until he has had time to study them."
Matt passed the word on to the others. "What's cooking?" demanded Tex. "What can there possibly be to be secret about?"
"How should I know?"
"I've got a theory," said Oscar.
"Huh? What? Spill it."
"The Captain wants to prove a man can't die of curiosity. He figures .that you are a perfect test case."
"Oh, go soak your head."
Captain Yancey called them all together again the following day. "Gentlemen, I appreciate your patience. I have not wanted to discuss what was found in the Pathfinder until I had time to decide what should be done about it. It comes to this: the planetologist with the Pathfinder, Professor Thorwald1, came to the unmistakable conclusion that the disrupted planet was inhabited."
The room started to buzz. "Quiet, please! There are samples of fossil- bearing rock in the Pathfinder, but there are other exhibits as well, which Professor Thorwald concluded -Dr. Pickering and Commander Miller and I concur-concluded to be artefacts, items worked by intelligent hands.
"That fact alone would be enough ,to send a dozen ships scurrying into the asteroid belt," he went on. "It is probably the most important discovery in System-study since they opened the diggings in Luna. But Professor Thorwald formed another conclusion even more startling. With the aid of the ship's bomb officer, using the rate-of-radioactive-decay method, he formed a tentative hypothesis that the planet-he calls it Planet Lucifer-was disrupted by artificial nuclear explosion. In other words, they did' it themselves."
The silence was broken only by the soft sighing of the room's ventilators. Then Thurlow exploded, "But Captain, that's impossible!"
Captain Yancey looked at him. "Do you know all the answers, young man? I'm sure I don't."
"I'm sorry, sir."
"In this case I wouldn't even venture to have an opinion. I'm not competent. However, gentlemen, if it be true, as Professor Thorwald certainly thought it was, then I hardly need point out to you that we have more reason than ever to be proud of our Patrol-and our responsibility is even heavier than we had thought.
"Now to business-I am very reluctant to leave the Pathfinder where she is. Aside from sentimental reasons she is a ship of the Patrol and she is worth a good many millions. I think we can repair her and take her back."
XIII LONG WAY HOME !
MATT TOOK PART in the rebuilding of the inner door of the Pathfinder's airlock and the checks for airtightness, all under the careful eye of the chief engineer. There was little
other damage inside the ship. The rock, or meteor, that had punched the gaping hole in the inner door had expended most of its force in so doing; an inner bulkhead had to be patched and a few dents smoothed. The outer, armored door was quite untouched; it was clear that the invader, by bad chance, had come in while the outer door was standing open.