Very carefully, trying to keep his hands steady, the Captain lit a cigarette and inhaled. He watched the smoke rise. "It could be a trick reflection."
"Or a mirage," Spencer filled in. "It's hot enough for a mirage." Then he handed over the second print. "But in this one I'm opening a trapdoor."
"Ho!" Hogan shouted. "This one wasn't taken from the ground. Look at the angle. This was taken from a copter."
The Captain exhaled very slowly. Due to the curve of the hemisphere, this trapdoor could not be seen from their location on the ground. But from thirty feet up, the level of the scum line, it would have been visible, if the trapdoor was really there. He was afraid it was. Somewhere. Was it on Pluto? He had heard tales of people, or were they machines? who had been able to rearrange molecular patterns, when initial cohesion was not great, by remote control. But there was no life here. The flare-up of this planet's sun had surely extinguished all life, even far below the surface.
Without a warning Hogan clipped Spencer on the mouth. Even sane he was dangerous when he thought he was being made to play the fool. Now he was a harshly breathing windmill of fists and boot-toes until the Captain stunned him with a judo blow to the back of the neck.
"You alright, Spencer? Just hold your head between your legs, you'll be all right." The Captain turned. "Grimes, would you bring me your climbing rope. No, don't tie him up. I'm going to use it to get on top of that dome." He bent on the grappling hook. On the third attempt he snagged something up there he couldn't see. "Don't look at him Spencer. Go take three more pictures; that's an order."
By the time he had dragged himself to the top, Spencer was back.
"First picture I'm climbing inside," he shouted. "Second picture you're climbing inside. Third picture Grimes is climbing inside."
"So your camera thinks it photographs the future does it?" the Captain shouted. "Ives and Kwatahiri come on up. No, Kwatahiri stay there; Spencer better stick with me today. Bring the gun, Ives."