and they had the Illensan in a crude chlorine tent. Still the Hudlars had not
moved.
“The Colonel is waving at you again,” Grawlya-Ki said. “I would say with
impatience.”
“We cannot use our sprayers here, Earthperson,” one of the Hudlars said before
MacEwan could reply. “The absorption mechanism in our tegument would ingest the
toxic gas with our food, and in our species trace amounts of chlorine are
lethal. The food sprayers can only be used in a beneficent atmosphere or in
airless conditions.”
“Bloody hell!” MacEwan said. When he thought of the way the Hudlars had worked
to free the casualties, knowing that their time and available energy was
severely limited and letting him assume that they had no problems, he should
have had more to say—but that was all that came out. He looked helplessly at
Ki, but the Orligian’s face was covered by its furry hand holding the
ridiculously small mask.
“With us,” the other Hudlar added, “starvation is a rapid process, somewhat akin
to asphyxiation in a gas breather. I estimate that we should lose consciousness
and die in just under eight of our small time divisions.”
MacEwan’s eyes went to the concentric circles of the lounge clock. The Hudlar
was talking about the equivalent of about twenty Earth minutes. Somehow they had
to get that boarding tunnel open.
“Go to the tunnel entrance,” he said, “and try to conserve your strength. Wait
beside the others until—” He broke off awkwardly, then said to the Orligian,
“Ki, you’d better get over there as well. There’s enough chlorine in the air
here to bleach your fur. Keep passing the masks around and—'”
“The Colonel,” Grawlya-Ki reminded him as it turned to follow the Hudlars.
MacEwan waved acknowledgment, but before he could leave the Illensan began
speaking, its voice muffled by the fabric of the makeshift chlorine tent.
“That was an ingenious idea, Earthperson,” it said slowly-“There is now a
beneficent atmosphere surrounding my
sure envelope, which will enable me to repair the torn fabric and survive until
Illensan assistance arrives. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” MacEwan said, and began picking his way over the debris toward
the gesticulating figure of the Colonel. He was still several meters from the
wall when the officer pointed to his ear, then rapped with a knuckle on the
interior surface. MacEwan obediently unfastened his mask on one side and pressed
an ear against the transparent wall. The other’s voice was low and indistinct,
even though the color of the Colonel’s face showed that he was shouting.
“Listen, MacEwan, and don’t try to answer yet,” the Colonel shouted.
“We’ll have you out of there in fifteen, twenty minutes at most, and you’ll have
fresh air in ten. Medical help for all of the casualty species is on the way.
Everybody on the planet knows about the accident because the TV channels were
covering your deportation as a news item, and now this is big news indeed.
Their contact mikes and translators are bringing us every word said in there,
and the authorities are insisting that every effort be made to speed up the
rescue___”
Across the lounge Grawlya-Ki was waving a mask and air tank above his head. When
the Orligian was sure that MacEwan had seen it; he threw it away. None of the
other casualties were wearing masks so obviously they were useless, their air
tanks empty. He wondered how long his own tank would last.
The equipment had been designed for the diminuitive Nidians, whose lungs were
less than half the capacity of an Earth-Arson’s. A lot of air had been wasted
during the continual Passing of masks between the casualties, and the furry face
of the Orligian would have allowed air to leak past the edges of its mask,
especially if Grawlya-Ki had increased the pressure to exclude the chlorine.
The Colonel had seen the Orligian’s action and must have leapt to the same
conclusion.
‘ ‘Tell them to hang on for just a few more minutes,” he went on. “We can’t cut
a way in from the main concourse because there are too many unprotected people
out there. That plastic wall is tough and needs special, high-temperature
equipment to cut it,. Anyway, -accidents,with the plastic tproduce large