He kept his line open to Operations, and every minute or so Wyman spoke to him, giving the data on the climbing piles. Ten had been jettisoned in hyperspace, and so had Fourteen and Fifteen. Since their shift to normal space, it had been necessary also to detach the entire bank of Nineteen, Twenty, and Twenty-one, whose index had risen at a terrifying rate.
Wyman's voice spoke in his ear. "One, Two, and Three are climbing fast, sir."
"Shoot them away!"
"No good, sir. I've tried. The release mechanism has fused, and those three Piles are welded to the ship!"
Evans closed his eyes. That meant that the life of the ship was doomed. There would be no way to save her. But the passengers could still be saved, if they got away soon enough, before the three Piles vaporized.
"Wyman!" he whispered despairingly, "is there any single Pile that isn't heating?"
"No, sir."
"Is there any single Pile that's responding to your dampers?"
"No, sir, not one."
"Then, in your experience, they are all bound to go, sooner or later?"