Zip grimaced. “That was stupid. I should have thought that they would have a guard. I just didn’t think of it, with all the electronic gadgetry around here and their obvious need of manpower. My fault. Sloppy thinking. But it’s worse to stand here and feel badly about it. We’ve got to disappear fast.”
“This way!!” shouted George and began to run toward the elevator. The asteroid miner who had previously been so sedate and hesitant now led the way. The Starmen followed him and the ten others brought up the rear. George reached the elevator door and pressed the panel. In seconds a door opened and the men hurried in. Just as the last man rushed through the opening and the doors began to close, the elevator doors in the next shaft opened and a troop of pirates poured out, guns drawn. In front of them they saw their two comrades lying motionless in the corridor, table and chairs in full disarray.
“Come on!” commanded their leader, leaping forward and turning toward his men to enforce his order. His eyes opened wide as he saw the doors of the adjacent elevator closing on the escaped prisoners. The Starmen’s last view of the scene was the pirate leader’s shocked face, mouth agape, pulling his laser pistol up to fire. Then their doors sealed and they began to descend.
Almost instantly, it seemed, the door opened. The only light came from the interior of the elevator. It shone on an uncountable number of enormous crates, stacked three high and set in rows extending beyond the range of the minimal light. Though the walls of the room could not be seen, there was a distinct feeling that the open space was huge—larger than a gymnasium, perhaps larger than a stadium. No one said a word. No one moved.
Suddenly Zip grabbed the laser pistol that Joe was carrying and leaped out of the elevator. He whipped around and fired at the control panel next to the large central elevator. The panel flared red for a second and then sparked like fireworks. Zip released the activation trigger on the pistol and stepped back. A few pops echoed in the darkness against a background of the soft sizzling sound of molten metal dripping down the wall.
Zip ran to the third elevator, calling out, “Move away from the elevator! Mark, destroy the controls!” Simultaneously Mark and Zip demolished the control panels of the remaining two elevators. When the controls were obliterated, the lights in the elevator went out and the fourteen erstwhile prisoners stood in the utter darkness of the immense chamber. The sole illumination was provided by the fading red glow of the superheated panels that had been their targets and a few bright orange dots in the gaping holes that remained.
“I don’t know if that’ll prevent the pirates from stopping at this floor, but every elevator on Earth I know about can’t move beyond any floor where the controls are inoperable. George! Where do we go?” Zip asked.
“Does anyone have a light?” responded the asteroid miner. Just then a pale glow like early dawn rose around them and filled the chamber.
“What’s that?” cried a frightened voice.
“Automatic lighting, probably,” answered Joe. “When someone moves far enough away from the elevator, or when its light goes out, the automatic lighting goes on.”