He slammed his hand against the switches that sent out a reversing signal to the drives of the Prospector. But it was too late. The worm drives bit into nothingness as the machine toppled slowly at the edge of the crevasse. And in that moment, as the image on the television screen teetered crazily, Jim had the impression that he was looking into the black depths of utter horror. There was a blackness oozing and writhing faintly in the depths—that could have been thirty or a hundred feet deep. But he had seen just such a black horror once before.
When the EEG signals from the moon first smashed into his brain!
He glanced at Sam. Sam was staring in a kind of intense horror that told Jim he recognized it, too.
The image tilted abruptly against the black moon sky. Then the screen went dark. And Jim had the feeling that the blackness had closed over him.
But Hennesey had sensed nothing of this. He was cursing and raging beside Jim. "You blind, brainless fool! You wiped out a billion-dollar experiment because you weren't looking! You're through, Cochran! Get everything that's yours and be out of here in ten minutes!"
Hennesey whirled and strode away, his rage reeking through the atmosphere of the room.
Jim stood up and moved to the back of the panel. He opened the plastic doors and clipped the last ten feet from the spool of TV recording tape and slipped it in his pocket. When he returned to the other side of the console, Sam was waiting for him.
"Where are you going?" said Jim.
"With you."
"Where's that?"