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the corridor winked out.
 Emergency battery system up full. Reinhardt gave the order as the extent of the damage began to
appear on internal monitors.
Light returned to the command tower. It was hesi-tant, flickering. As the pull of the collapsar began to
affect the most massive portion of theCygnus, where the field had weakened further, the ship started to
drift sideways. This further complicated the efforts of the null-g generation system to protect it.
Holland helped Pizer to his feet. They ran faster now in the half light. The walls of the corridor groaned
around them.
The first sections of the great ship to feel the intensi-fied effects of the gravitational pull were those
already weakened by contact with meteoric debris. Bits of loosened or torn superstructure shuddered,
fell away from the exterior. This in turn unhinged the stability of the areas of which they were a part.
Shivering dangerously, the command tower remained intact. More and more instrumentation winked out.
The consoles themselves threatened to tear free of their wall mountings. Oblivious to the danger,
humanoid ro-bots continued to perform their designated tasks.
Reinhardt had come to a painful but irrevocable de-cision.  Maximillian, prepare the probe ship. She s
not going to hold under this kind of stress, not on half power. The massive mechanical turned obediently,
moved toward the elevator.
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Reinhardt paused a moment before following. Slowly he turned to take a last look at the heart of what
had become his private empire of discovery and explo-ration. Twenty years of his life he had spent
lobbying for the construction of theCygnus, another twenty to bring it to this point in space. He would go
on, but without it He would not be cheated of his triumph.
His entry into the new Universe would only be a little less grand.
Turning, he moved to follow Maximillian. A violent ripping noise made him look up. The overhead
screen had torn loose from its braces.
He had run two steps before something drove a knife into his legs. The screen struck with a resounding
crash, pinning him to the deck close by the transparent wall of the tower. A brief, exhausting struggle
proved he was hopelessly pinioned beneath the edge of the heavy viewer.
 Maximillian, help me! Another piece of instru-mentation fell from above, shattered on the deck nearby.
 Maximillian! Reinhardt twisted his upper body, looked for his servant.
The elevator door was closed. Maximillian had al-ready departed.
He turned his eyes to the rows of busy hu-manoids.  You, there! Help me. I said,help me
Programmed only to serve their assigned stations, they ignored him even as those very stations broke
down around them. A panicky Reinhardt turned away, found himself staring out the port. Though leaning
dangerously, the probe ship still rested in its dock.
Reinhardt began to lose his monumental self-control.  Fools! Listen to me. Somebody listen, or well all
per-ish! There was no response from the humanoids. He had reprogrammed them too well.
Turning his attention back to the screen, he tried again to push himself free. Occasionally his gaze would
travel to the still functioning main screen, to the view of the expanding blackness that would soon swallow
theCygnus.
Somehow Holland put aside consideration of the ag-ony in his injured leg and kept pace with the others
as they raced down the corridor.
As the ship fell still deeper into the gravity well, it started to break up. The corridor trembled around the
gasping group of refugees. The view through a wall port provided a boost no amount of rest could have
equaled. They were nearing the probe dock.
 This way! shouted Holland. They turned a last bend and found themselves standing outside the lock
leading to the connecting umbilical. But when Holland jabbed the stud to open the door, it remained
unmov-ing.
A red warning light came on instead as a nearby readout provided the explanation.
Holland looked around grimly.  Connector s been severed. They started searching. "
McCrae found the hoped-for locker. A dozen suits were neatly arranged inside. They chose three with
full tanks, helped each other dress as minutes ticked past. A brief check insured that each suit was tight,
that its internal oxygen system was functioning and that the communicators were operative.
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Holland waved the others clear. Pizer and McCrae moved down the corridor, the two robots the other
way.
 Ready?
Everyone acknowledged by grabbing tight to a se-cured section of wall or railing. Wrapping one arm
around a protruding tube, Holland leaned over and touched the three emergency studs in proper
sequence. The explosive bolts blew the lock cover out into space. A brief but intense rush of air pulled
hard at everyone. It faded as distant emergency doors shut tight, sealing them off from the rest of the
ship.
 Well, old-timer, Vincent was saying to Bob as they turned to head for the exit,  you re going home
after all... and as a hero, too.
 Had to uphold the honor of the old outfit, Vincent.
McCrae, standing by the exit, noticed something moving at the far end of the passageway.  Vincent,
Bob look out!
Maximillian had appeared immediately behind the two machines. Bob reacted first, thus catching the full
force of the large mechanical s lasers. Circuitry flared as he was thrown backward, bounced off a wall
and fell to the floor. Maximillian shifted to turn his weapons on Vincent and the others.
The delay had given Vincent enough time to turn and fire himself. Both precisely aligned shots melted the
pistols in Maximillian s hands.
 Get to the ship! he instructed his human compan-ions.  I ll handle this.
Maximillian had not been rendered harmless, how-ever. Two additional arms came up, tipped with
whirl-ing blades suitable for trimming metal. They were designed to repair. They could as easily
dismember.
Vincent hovered in his path, fired again. But the material of the larger robot s shell was considerably
tougher than the thin alloy of the two obliterated lasers. Vincent fired again. The bursts had no effect on
the oncoming Maximillian.
 Hurry, Captain. Vincent backed away from the larger mechanical.
The three humans exited through the blown hatch. Maximillian hesitated, then turned his full attention to
the darting, distracting Vincent. He rushed up at him. The smaller machine dodged, fired again, seeking a
weak placein the armored monolith and not finding one. Vincent dipped down to fire from closer range,
ducked as the high-speed blades cut over his head.
Maximillian shifted again, trying to corner his op-ponent against a wall. Vincent ducked and bobbed,
fir-ing. The edge of one blade snicked against his shell, sent him tumbling off-balance into the wall. The [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]