She swung on the D-grip to look back.
Dimly lit from below, her face seemed gaunt and lovely and hurt.
“Captain Ulnar, you’ve got to do something.”
Her low voice was queerly, coldly calm.
“We’ve got to help Commander Star.”
“We’re doing all we can,” I told her.
“After all, the station is not a battleship.
We can’t run away.
With only two obsolete proton guns, we can’t put up much of a fight.
With all communication out, we can’t even call for aid.
“If Commander Star is really under attack from an enemy machine—”
A quavering wail came from old Habibula. His hands had slipped off the D-grip.
Jerking convulsively in the flame-colored sweater, his body went sailing away through that dim cavern, whirling like a living satellite toward the far silver sphere of a rocket-fuel tank.
“Help him, Captain.” The girl’s voice tightened with concern.
“He isn’t used to enemy machines.”
I triggered my hand-jet to overhaul him and tow him back to the cable.
His pink skin had faded white, and I could feel his body trembling.
He clutched the D-grip frantically.
“Don’t speak of such machines!”
His voice was a shrill, shallow piping.
“But never think that I’m afraid.
I’ve met and conquered dangers far more deadly than any space anomaly.
It’s simply— simply—simply—” Clinging to the D-grip, he panted and shook.
“It’s simply that I’m weak with mortal hunger and a thirst that won’t let go!
I’m the hapless guinea pig, remember, for this desperate immortality experiment.
Lilith’s precious serum has been turning back the years, but it gives me a fearful appetite.”
“We’re on our way to dinner now.”
From the cable stage, the elevator lifted us out to the full-G ring.
We found the mess hall dark and empty, but old Habibula observed with a sick, pink grin that its faithful machines were ready to serve us.
Greedily, he punched the computer for three full meals.
While he was busy, Lilith beckoned me aside.
“Captain—” Her hushed voice was gravely hesitant.
“Aren’t we interfering with more important duty?
At a time like this, shouldn’t you be in direct command?”
I couldn’t tell her that she and old Habibula presented a problem as strange and dangerous as the anomaly itself.
“Perhaps you don’t realize just how desperate this crisis is,” I told her carefully.
“One wrong move could touch off panic.
As things stand, the men are still on duty.
Ketzler is a fine young officer.
He needs a chance to prove himself.”
Her tawny eyes looked hard at me.
“Good enough, I guess.”
She moved toward the table where Habibula sat waiting for his food.
“If you’re really free, tell us about the anomaly.”
Her face seemed oddly urgent.
“Every fact you can!”
“The first pioneers got here about thirty years ago,” I said.
“They found this snowball and a little swarm of stranger rocks.
Iron masses two or three miles across—a harder alloy than the nickel-iron of common meteors, and richly veined with more valuable metals.”
“I’ve read reports about them.”