Blish,James – And all the Stars a Stage

air escaping from a balloon; and then, a small, muffled detonation. The

curtain of

And all the Stars a Stage 177

yellow fire seemed to ripple, and the armorer took one step back.

. The flame-thrower died out with a sputter of black smoke. Everyone was

coughing. The aperture to the hell that had been the cabin glowed cherry,

then crimson, and finally went black, but waves of beat continued to wbehn

out from it. The girl pushed up her mask.

‘Cleaned out, Director.”

“Thank you,” Jorn said, swallowing hard. “Well done. Very well done.” He

could think of nothing more adequate to say. She must have looked for at

least a second into that room, and into those eyes; but she had not even

quivered.

“Nothing to it,” she said, shaking a last little spatter of fire-drops from

the nozzle of the flame-thrower onto the deck. “I’m glad I finally got to

use it for something.”

She marched out, disconnecting her hoses as she went. forn wondered

crazily: has she no curiosity at all? But Sergeant Strage wouldn’t have

had, either.

“What’s next?” Monel said. He seemed, to Jorn’s secret and malicious

pleasure, to be a little dazed.

“We’ve got a Yellow Warning,” be said. “Pull the tapes and look them over.

That’s your job, isn’t it? When you’ve got a digest of what’s on them,

report to me in my cabin-no later than tomorrow noon.”

“The tapes? Oh, of course. Yes, all right.”

“No, it’s not all right. Try again.”

The youngster looked up, startled, into his fatherin-law’s eyes. Then his

expression turned slightly sullen.

“Yes, Director.”