There was no time to hide. Each boy flattened himself against the wall on opposite sides of the door and held his breath as the door opened slowly.
"There can be no doubt about it, Steve," said Commander Walters to the young captain. "What we need are more powerful pumping stations for oxygen and additional generators for supplying power to the force field."
"How do you figure that, sir?" asked Strong.
"It's simply this," replied Walters. "The population here has nearly tripled in the past two years. The force-field screens were set up originally to accommodate only a minimum number of miners and their families. With the heavy demand for crystal, and therefore, more civilians to dig it out, the force field has been overloaded."
"But I still don't see how, sir," Strong protested.
"The more people, the more oxygen needed to keep them alive, right?"
Strong nodded.
"The force screens hold back the methane ammonia gas and create a vacuum into which we pump oxygen, right?"
Again Strong nodded.