“What do you think, Mark, Joe? Let’s look around here.” The Starmen began to examine the keyboards and control systems spread throughout the room. There were symbols written beside most of the controls, but none of the writing was recognizable.
“Alien writing,” observed Mark. “I’d sure like to know what it says.”
Joe was at the next console, thoughtfully pressing buttons, but there was no response.
“We need to find food and water,” said one of the others.
“Right,” said Zip. “Everyone check through the shelves and cabinets. Open the doors, too, and look through, but don’t go anywhere.” Zip didn’t speak aloud what was on his mind. The workings of the asteroid, no matter how technologically advanced, had been abandoned for probably thousands of years. There could be no water or food anywhere except where the pirates were. The Starmen and miners may have escaped captivity, but their freedom would do them no good until they found food, water, and a spaceship. Success in finding even one of those items without being recaptured was highly unlikely. And even if they could board a ship, escape from the asteroid was just about impossible. He wondered how long it would take before someone else realized these things and voiced them.
“There’s nothing, Mr. Foster,” said one of the men after everyone had searched thoroughly.
“Mm hmm,” Zip nodded. “Well, let’s sleep and start again in the morning. Maybe some of us can go back to the warehouse and open up a few of those crates. There may be food and water in some of them. Others can investigate some of the passages that lead away from here.”
The men arranged themselves around the room and lay down. “I think I found the light switch, anyway,” said Joe and pressed a button next to one of the doorways. The room became dark.
“I assure you, Mr. Zimbardo, there was nothing wrong with the airbot,” asserted a large man, standing before the pirate leader with a half dozen of his partners. “I don’t know what threw it back into the elevator shaft and I don’t know what made it explode—but there was nothing wrong with it. The prisoners must have done something to it.”
“These prisoners are more than asteroid miners! None of St. George’s men has the capability of knocking out two armed men the way those two were knocked out. None of them has the know-how to disable a airbot!” Zimbardo turned to his chief control officer. “Gene! Get me Lather right away. Tell him to bring up all information he has on the prisoners he brought in from Z25. Tell him to bring especially the video-record of the prisoners.” He turned back to the others. “You’re dismissed!”