“All right, I’m coming,” replied Feth. “Get the inner door open as soon as pressure’s up.” He started down the corridor, leaving the pilot behind. Ken’s message had been well worded.
He was not gone long enough to make the pilot suspicious; within two or three minutes Lee heard both mechanic and scientist returning. They were not talking, and as they approached the pilot grew curious. He started to rise to meet them, but had time just to reach his feet before the two entered the door. The gloomy expression had left Feth’s face, to be replaced by one much harder to decipher. Lee, however, spent no time trying to solve its meaning; his eyes were both drawn instantly to the object the two were carrying in a cloth sling between them.
It was roughly cubical, perhaps a foot on a side. It was yellow in color. It trailed a visible stream of mist, and yellow droplets appeared and grew on its surface — droplets of a deeper, honey-colored hue; droplets that gathered together, ran down the sides of the block, soaked into the sling, and vanished in thin air. For an instant Lee, watching it, showed an expression of bewilderment; this changed almost at once to one of horror; then he regained control of himself.
“So that’s where the air was going,” he remarked. “What’s the idea?”
Ken, who was clad in a space suit except for the helmet, did not answer the question directly. Instead, he asked one of his own.
“You know the coordinates of Sarr, and could get there from here, don’t you?”
“Of course. I’ve made the trip often enough. So what— I hope you don’t think I’m going to tell you in order to get out of a frostbite.”
“I don’t care whether you want to tell us or not I plan for you to do the piloting. And I don’t plan to freeze you on this block — in fact, we’ll put it down right here. You have until it evaporates to make up your mind. After that, we’ll be in a position to make it up for you.” The pilot laughed.
“I was expecting that one. Am I supposed to believe you have some tofacco in the middle of that? You just made the block a couple of minutes ago.”
“Quite true. Since you bring up the matter, there is a cylinder of tofacco inside the block. I put it there myself — a few minutes ago, as you say.”