hand, how long would they survive foraging in completely
unknown territory? And yet obviously they couldn’t stay
cooped up in here foreverespecially if it was true that there
was already no water.
He was spared having to make up his mind by a halloo
from the direction of the office. After a startled stare at
each other, the two hit the deck running.
Sergeant Oberholzer’s face was peering grimly through
the split in the bulkhead.
“Oho,” he said. “So you did make it.” He said something
unintelligible to some invisible person outside, and then
squirmed through the breach into the room, with consider-
able difficulty, since he was in full battle gear. “None of
the officers did, so I guess that puts you in command.”
“In command of what?” 12-Upjohn said dryly.
“Not very much,” the Marine admitted. “I’ve got five
men surviving, one of them with a broken hip, and a section
of the ship with two drive units in it. It would lift, more or
less, if we could jury-rig some controls, but I don’t know
where we’d go in it without supplies or a navigatoror an
overdrive, for that matter.” He looked about speculatively.
“There was a Standing Wave transceiver in this section, I
think, but ifd be a miracle if it still functioned.”
“Would you know how to test it?” Robin asked.
“No. Anyhow we’ve got more immediate business than
that. We’ve picked up a native. What’s more, he speaks
Englishmust have picked it up from the Assam Dragon. We
started to ask him questions, but it turns out he’s some
sort of top official, so we brought him over here on the off