It was the energy equivalent of an eight-story fall on Earth, and even the Mesklinite was jolted. However, he retained he self-command. A single hoot told those above he had survived without serious injury, and warned them against following in case pride might have furnished an impulse which intelligence certainly would not. The captain, with that order issued, relegated the scientist to the back of his mind and concentrated on the next step.
The nearest rock with enough exposed area to accommodate him was two feet — well over a body length — away, but was at least visible. Better still, another one only slightly off the line to it expose a square inch or so of its surface; and two seconds after analyzing this situation, Dondragmer was two feet closer to the power box and looking for another stopping point. The lone square inch of the stepping stone had been touched by perhaps a dozen feet as the red-and-black length of his body had ricocheted from it to the second rock.
The next stage was more difficult. It was harder to be sure which way to go, since the hull which had been furnished orientation was now barely visible also, there were no more large surfaces as close as the one from which he had come. He hesitated, looking and planning; but before he reached a decision the question was resolved for him. The grumbling sound which had gone on for so many minutes as water exploded into steam against the hot wire and almost instantly collapses again under Dhrawn’s atmospheric pressure abruptly ceased, and Dondragmer knew that he was too late to save the metal. He relaxes immediately and waited where he was while the water cooled, the evaporation slowed, and the fog of ice crystals cleared away. He himself grew uncomfortably warm, and was more than once tempted to return the way he had come but the two-foot climb up an ice overhang with hot water at is foot, which would form part of the journey, made the temptation easy to resist. He waited.
He was still alive when the air cleared and crystals of ice began to grow around the edges of the rocks. He was some six feet from the power unit, and was able to reach it by a rather zigzag course over the cobbles once the way could be seen. He shut off the power controls, and only when that was done did he look around.
His two men had already made their way along the ice cliff to a point about the level with the original front bend of the wire; Dondragmer guessed that this must be where the metal had melted through this time.
In the other direction, under the bulking hull, was a black cavern where the Kwembly’s lights did not reach. The captain had no real wish to enter it; it was very likely that he would find the bodies of his two helmsmen there. His hesitation was observed from above.
“What’s he waiting there at the power box for?” muttered McDevitt. “Oh, I suppose the ice isn’t thick enough for him yet.”
‘That’s not all of it, I’d guess.” Benj’s tone made the meteorologist look sharply away from the screen.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
“You must know what’s the matter. Beetch and his friend were under there. They must have been. How could they have gotten away from that hot water? I bet the captain only just thought of it — he’d never have let them use that way if he’d seen what would happen, any more than I would have.”
McDevitt thought rapidly; the boy wouldn’t be convinced, or even comforted, by anything but sounds reasoning, and McDevitt’s soundest reasoning suggested that Benj’s conclusion was probably right. However, he tried.
“It looks bad, but don’t give up. It doesn’t look as though this thing melted its way all the way across under the ship, but it might have; and either way there’s some hope. If it did, the could have got out the other side, which we can’t see; if it didn’t they could have stayed right at the edge of the liquid zone, where the ice could have saved them. Also, they may not have been under there.”
“Water ice save them? I thought you said that this stuff froze because it lost its ammonia, not because the temperature went down. Water ice at its melting point — zero centigrade — would give heatstroke to a Mesklinite.”
“That was my guess,” admitted the have enough measurements of any sort. I admit your little friend may have been killed; but we know so little of what has happened down there that it would be silly to give up hope. Just wait — there’s nothing else to do at this distance anyway. Even Dondragmer is staying put. You can trust him to check as soon as it’s possible.”
Benj restrained himself, and did his best to look for bright possibilities; but the eye he was supposed to be keeping on Stakendee remained fixed on the captain’s image.
Several times Dondragmer could be seen to extend part of his length onto the ice, but each time he drew back again, to the boy’s intense annoyance. At last, however, he seemed satisfied that the ice would hold his weight, and inch by inch extended himself entirely onto the newly frozen surface. Once off the power box he waited for a moment as though expecting something to happen; but the ice held, and he resumed his way toward the side of the Kwembly. The human beings watched, Benj’s fists clenched tightly and even the man more tense than usual.
Of course they could hear nothing. Not even the hoot which suddenly echoed across the ice penetrated the bridge to affect their communicator. They could not even guess why Dondragmer suddenly turned back from the hull as he was about to disappear under it. They could only watch as he raced back across the ice to a point just below his two men and waved excitedly at them, apparently indifferent to whatever there was to be learned about the fate of his helmsman and Benj’s friend.
12
Dondragmer was far from indifferent, but by his standards it was normal to focus attention on a new matter likely to require action rather than clear up an old one where action was unlikely to help. He had not dropped the fate of his men from mind, but when a distant hoot bore the words “Here’s the end of the stream” to him his [program changed abruptly and drastically.
He could not see where the voice was coming from, since he was two feet below the general surface, but Borndender reported glimpses of a light perhaps half a mile away. At the captain’s order, the scientists climbed the hull part way to get a better view, while his assistant went in search of a rope to get the captain out of the ice pit. This took time. The sailors had, with proper professional care, returned the lines used in lowering the radiator bar to their proper places inside the cruiser; and when Skendra, Borndender’s assistant, tried to get through the main lock he found it sealed by a layer of clear ice which had frozen a quarter of an inch thick on the starboard side of the hull, evidently from the vapor emitted by the hot pool. Fortunately most of the holdfasts were projecting far enough through this to be usable, so he was able to climb on up to the bridge lock.
Meanwhile, Borndender called down that there were two lights approaching across the riverbed. At the captain’s order, he howled questions across the thousand-yard gap, and the two listened carefully for answers — even Mesklinite voices had trouble carrying distinct words for such a distance and through two layer of airsuit fabric. By the time Dondragmer was out of the hole, they knew that the approaching men were part of Stakendee’s command which had been ordered to follow down the stream, and that they had reached its end less than a mile from the ship; but until the group actually reached them, no further details could be made out.
Even then, they could no entirely understand it; the description did not match anything familiar to them.