White, James – Sector General 05 – Sector General

pointed and said, “It is close to the inner hull among the DCMH hammocks. Call

me if you need help, Doctor.”

He turned and began crawling toward the bows again. But he did not get very far

because by the time Conway reached the casualty he could hear the hiss of the

cutting torch and the Captain’s heavy breathing.

It took only a few minutes to piece together what had hap­pened. Two of the

hammock’s supports had broken due to the lateral shock when the ship had

fallen—they had been designed to withstand vertical G forces, not horizontal

ones—and the hammock had swung downward throwing its occupant against the

suddenly horizontal wall. There was an area of subcuta­neous bleeding where the

DCMH’s head had struck, but no sign of a fracture. The blow had not been fatal,

but it had been enough to render the being unconscious or dazed until the highly

lethal vapor from the damaged reservoir had invaded its lungs. This one had been

doubly unlucky, Conway thought as he carefully drew it the rest of the way from

its hammock and extended his examination. There was one wound, the usual one, at

the base of its spine. Conway’s scalp prickled at the thought that the attacker

had been inside the dormitory and had struck even at a victim in its hammock.

What sort of creature was it? Small rather than large, he thought. Vicious. And

fast. He looked quickly around the dormitory, then returned his attention to the

cadaver.

“That’s unusuaJ,” he said aloud. “This one has what seems to be a small quantity

of partially digested food in its stomach.” “You think that’s unusual.”

Murchison said in a baffled tone. “The sample containers from the storage deck

contain food. Liquid, a powdery solid, and some fibrous material, but all

high-grade nutrient suited to the metabolisms of all three life-forms. What was

the excuse for cannibalism? And why

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the blazes was everybody starving? The whole deck is packed with food!”

“Are you sure—?” began Conway, when he was cut off by a voice in his phones

which was so distorted that he could not tell who was speaking.

“What is that thing?”

“Captain?” he said doubtfully.

“Yes, Doctor.” The voice was still distorted, but recogniz­able.

“You—you’ve found the criminal?”

“No, Doctor,” Fletcher replied harshly. “Another victim. Definitely another

victim—”

“It’s moving, sir!” Dodds voice broke in.

“Doctor,” the Captain went on, “can you come at once. You too, ma’am.”

Fletcher was crouched inside the entrance of what had to be the ship’s Control

Deck, using the cutting torch on the tangle of wreckage which almost filled the

space between the ceiling and floor. The place was a shambles, Conway saw by the

light coming through the open hatch above them and the few strips of emergency

lighting which were still operating. Practically all of the ceiling-mounted

equipment had torn free in the fall; ruptured piping and twisted, jagged-edged

supporting brackets projected into the space above the control couches on the

deck opposite.

The control couches had been solidly mounted and had remained in position, but

they were empty, their restraining webbing hanging loose—except for one. This

was a very large, deep cupola around which the other couches were closely

grouped, and it was occupied.

Conway began to climb toward it, but the foothold he had been using gave way

suddenly and a stub of broken-off piping dug him painfully in the side without,

fortunately, rupturing his suit.

“Careful, damn it!” Fletcher snapped. “We don’t need an­other casualty.”

“Don’t bite my head off, Captain,” Conway said, then laughed nervously at his

unfortunate choice of words.

He cringed inwardly as he climbed toward the central cupola

in the wake of the Captain, thinking that the crew on duty and those in the

Dormitory Deck had had to find a way through this mess, and in great haste

because of the toxic vapor flooding through the ship. They were much smaller

than Earth-humans, of course, but even so they must have been badly cut by that

tangle of metal. In fact, they had been badly cut, with the exceptions of the

DCMH in the dormitory and the new life-form above them, neither of whom had