The captain stared at him from bewildered eyes.
A vast throb came from the ship.
"He's warming up the drive!" the captain said. "You're right. Where's the general?"
The Andromeda went out of the hangar without waiting for the vast doors to be opened. There was no time to wait for that, nor would the request to open the doors have been obeyed even if it could have been transmitted. There was a tremendous, thundering screech of tortured metal as she tore the doors down. Then, with Adam March at the controls, she mounted to the sky.
The thing in the air behind him was thrown completely off-balance by the unexpected takeoff. It did not know what to do, consultation with its comrades was necessary before action could be taken. The Sorodrome spun back out of the control room.
Only minutes, perhaps less than minutes, were needed for the Sorodromes to agree on what had to be done.
Filo made the decision. "Destroy that human in the control room!"
Adam March had dreamed all of his life of being at the control of a deep-space ship. Now he had the privilege, now his dream had come true. He felt the surge of vast power at the control of his finger tips as the ship moved out of the hangar. He did not hear the crashing of the big doors. The slight bumps they made in falling was not transmitted through the ship to him. Before him were the bright clear skies of deep space. He pointed the ship upward.
In the long run, he knew what the answer would be. The Sorodromes would certainly conquer him. If they didn't do that, they would clamp down over him the same strange control they had exercised over the men of the Andromeda.