The Runaway Asteroid, Michael D. Cooper [mobi reader android TXT] 📗

unconscious. The entire fight had taken less than ten seconds.

Zip stepped into the corridor calmly. "Did either of them have a chance to set off an alarm?"

"I think this one did," responded Joe, pointing to the fallen pirate at his feet and picking up his laser pistol. "He had about five seconds while he was running to send an emergency call."

Zip grimaced. "That was stupid. I should have thought that they would have a guard. I just didn't think of it, with all the electronic gadgetry around here and their obvious need of manpower. My fault. Sloppy thinking. But it's worse to stand here and feel badly about it. We've got to disappear fast."

"This way!!" shouted George and began to run toward the elevator. The asteroid miner who had previously been so sedate and hesitant now led the way. The Starmen followed him and the ten others brought up the rear. George reached the elevator door and pressed the panel. In seconds a door opened and the men hurried in. Just as the last man rushed through the opening and the doors began to close, the elevator doors in the next shaft opened and a troop of pirates poured out, guns drawn. In front of them they saw their two comrades lying motionless in the corridor, table and chairs in full disarray.

"Come on!" commanded their leader, leaping forward and turning toward his men to enforce his order. His eyes opened wide as he saw the doors of the adjacent elevator closing on the escaped prisoners. The Starmen's last view of the scene was the pirate leader's shocked face, mouth agape, pulling his laser pistol up to fire. Then their doors sealed and they began to descend.

Almost instantly, it seemed, the door opened. The only light came from the interior of the elevator. It shone on an uncountable number of enormous crates, stacked three high and set in rows extending beyond the range of the minimal light. Though the walls of the room could not be seen, there was a distinct feeling that the open space was huge-larger than a gymnasium, perhaps larger than a stadium. No one said a word. No one moved.

Suddenly Zip grabbed the laser pistol that Joe was carrying and leaped out of the elevator. He whipped around and fired at the control panel next to the large central elevator. The panel flared red for a second and then sparked like fireworks. Zip released the activation trigger on the pistol and stepped back. A few pops echoed in the darkness against a background of the soft sizzling sound of molten metal dripping down the wall.

Zip ran to the third elevator, calling out, "Move away from the elevator! Mark, destroy the controls!" Simultaneously Mark and Zip demolished the control panels of the remaining two elevators. When the controls were obliterated, the lights in the elevator went out and the fourteen erstwhile prisoners stood in the utter darkness of the immense chamber. The sole illumination was provided by the fading red glow of the superheated panels that had been their targets and a few bright orange dots in the gaping holes that remained.

"I don't know if that'll prevent the pirates from stopping at this floor, but every elevator on Earth I know about can't move beyond any floor where the controls are inoperable. George! Where do we go?" Zip asked.

"Does anyone have a light?" responded the asteroid miner. Just then a pale glow like early dawn rose around them and filled the chamber.

"What's that?" cried a frightened voice.

"Automatic lighting, probably," answered Joe. "When someone moves far enough away from the elevator, or when its light goes out, the automatic lighting goes on."

"Follow me," directed George. He led the procession to the right of the elevator shafts. On one side was a blank wall at least 25 feet high. On the other were row upon row of crates. Each box had a mark on it, but none of the Starmen could recognize its meaning. Far down the rows was the opposite wall of the chamber, at least 200 yards away.

George St. George was hurrying, leading the band of fourteen onward.
There was no opportunity for conversation, but Mark stepped up close to
Zip, who had taken the last position in the march.

"Think what this place is, Zip!" the mystically-oriented Starman breathed, his eyes alight with excitement. "This was made by an intelligent, extra-terrestrial race we've never heard of! The Titanians certainly didn't make it! And whoever made it was shaped just like us! As George said before, the controls, the beds, the chairs-all are designed for people like us! Same size! And imagine what must be in these storage units!"

"I have been thinking about it, Mark," answered Zip. "I'll want more time later to sift through my impressions, but there are too many questions here to deal with at the pace we're going."

"Of course, but think! Who made this place? How big is the complex?
When and why did they abandon it? Where are they now?"

"Yes-and above all, what else will we find in here?"

Just then the screech of tortured metal sounded loudly throughout the chamber. Everyone turned and stared back at the elevators, where the sound was coming from. A spot on the left door of the central elevator began to glow red, then orange, then white. Iridescent metal began to spew forth in chunks. Then a spherical mechanism about the size of a basketball shot through the hole. A few bright green and yellow lights the size of small coins lit up its dull silver surface.

Zip's blood ran cold. "It's an airbot!" he cried. Zip had never seen an airbot before, but he knew what it was: an aerial reconobot, an armed robotic flying device which, among other uses, could be programmed to track down fugitives, drawn by their body heat. Zip and Mark lifted their laser pistols and fired simultaneously. Their beams lit up red dots on the surface of the flying ball but scattered harmlessly, as the Starmen assumed they would. The airbot quickly oriented itself to the escapees and began to fly toward them.

9: A Vision in the Night

"RUN! Go! Scatter! Move!" shouted Zip frantically. He ran forward to the closest aisle between the stacks of crates, wheeled right, and sped down the narrow space. He heard the quiet, efficient "zzap" sound of the airbot's disabling beam, but apparently not directed toward him yet. Desperation powered his legs and they pumped at peak speed. He didn't know where the others were or what they were doing. Someone else was racing behind him but he didn't stop to find out who it was.

It was not cowardice that inspired his flight, but the desire to preserve the team. Scattering and flying gave a slight hope that some of the men might escape the relentless search of the airbot-or at least put off the inevitable. The rotation of the asteroid provided artificial gravity, but it was low enough to enable the men to move quickly, covering a lot of distance as they ran.

"Zzap. Zzap," he heard again, more distant this time. He came to the end of the aisle and had to slow to keep from slamming into the wall in front of him. He reached out his left hand and grabbed the corner of a crate to help him execute the turn. As he made the quick right angle twist at the end of the row of crates, he glanced behind him with his peripheral vision. Joe was close behind him and several yards farther away were two of the miners. Even as he looked, he saw the airbot fly over the crates into the aisle he had just cleared, missing the ceiling by less than a foot. With the hated "zzap" sound, it fired one beam toward the miner at the rear of the headlong retreat, and the man went limp and collapsed. His momentum carried him forward several feet before he stopped moving.

Zip saw it all in a split-second as his inertia carried him out of view. He looked forward again and sped down the aisle; after passing a few rows he turned again to the left. Far ahead of him he saw the elevator door with the bulging rupture through which the airbot had burst into the warehouse. Suddenly the airbot flew over the stack of crates to Zip's left and appeared about fifteen yards in front of him. A feeling of panicky horror surged through Zip as he saw the airbot re-orient itself in his direction.

All at once every point of light on the airbot went out and it hung motionless in the air. Then it sped back to the elevator door as if jerked by a cable. It smashed through the hole it had made and flew into the shaft. Instantly there was a dull "whump," more felt in one's tissues than heard aloud. A bright light came through the opening like a spotlight, then faded.

"What happened to the airbot?" Joe's amazed voice behind him asked the question that was in Zip's mind.

"Let's go," said Zip. "Let's find out who's down and carry them away." Both the Starmen were breathing hard, but quickly returned to normal as they paced the aisles. In moments they had assembled those whom the airbot had not found. Only four men had been disabled by the airbot's beams.

"Take us out of here, George," ordered Zip. His voice was quiet but carried the authority of leadership that people welcome when there is a crisis. Using the fireman's carry, eight men easily transported the four who were unconscious.

George St. George turned without a word and led the way. Everyone followed. St. George came to the end of the walkway and turned to the left around the last row of storage units. On his right was a bank of elevator doors, some large and some small. He came to the first one and with his hand shaking pressed some numbers into a control panel. Nothing happened.

He looked up to Zip with a countenance marked with anguish and pleaded, "I can't do it. My fingers won't work. Mr. Foster, you press the numbers, please." Zip stepped up to the panel. As the asteroid miner called out the directions, Zip pressed the buttons.

"Top center. Right center. Top right. Top right again. Bottom left.
Center. Sorry, I'm a little shaken up."

"That's okay, George. I think we'll be fine now." The elevator door opened and all the men stepped into the conveyance. The door closed. George reached out and pressed one button. The elevator began to move-not down or up as the men expected, but away from the chamber where they had fought the airbot.

"What's wrong with these men?" asked one of the miners. "They're completely unconscious and their arms and legs are swinging around like they're puppets or something."

"They're just out temporarily, not hurt," answered Joe. "Airbots disrupt certain neural connections to bring on sleep and complete relaxation of all muscle functions. I'm not sure how high the airbot's beam was set, but I'd guess pretty high. They'll probably sleep for several hours but they'll be fine when they wake up."

"What did you do to that machine that was chasing us?" asked another of
St. George's companions.

"I didn't do anything to it. I don't know what happened to it," answered Zip. "I suppose it malfunctioned. Lucky for us." Joe and Mark both glanced sidelong at Zip, then looked away. The Starmen knew that whatever had happened to the airbot, a malfunction was not one of the possibilities.

Another of the miners spoke up. "I've never been on an elevator that moved horizontally before. Where are we going, George? This transit is taking longer than just moving between floors."

"The elevators inside this rock can move in just about any direction except slantindicular. If I remembered accurately, this one'll take us to a control and information center of some kind. I don't know where it is in relation to where we started, but we should be safe there and if I don't forget where we come out, I can always get us back to the warehouse if we want to return."

The elevator came to a stop and the door opened onto darkness. As before, the elevator light illumined a small space, in which the men could see a few counters. When the first passenger debarked, soft lights went on. The illumination revealed a room of about 2,000 square feet, filled with viewscreens, computer stations, cabinets and shelves, tables and chairs, and a few sofas. At least a dozen doors led from the room. The four unconscious men were laid carefully down onto the sofas.

"What is this