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Humans spend their lives in mazes If they escape and cannot find another ?
- Kerro Panille, Questions from the Avata
RAJA THOMAS awoke in darkness and it was like thatin hyb He found hiers he could not locate Slowly, it calanced at the luminous tiht watch
What awakened ht levels under the Pandoran surface, a choice location cushioned froes, locks, hatches, slide-tubes and sees The Ship-trained found no difficulty recording mental maps of such layouts, theburied in these depths Too much travel time to places which demanded his attention
Lab One
He had gone to sleep while wondering about that restricted place The source of sopeople who’re faster than the demons"
That was the popular story
"Oakes and Leant nothing but servile zombies!"
Thomas had heard that story fro woman associate of Rachel Demarest
Slowly, he sat up and tried to probe the darkness around him
Odd I should awaken at this hour
He touched the light plate on the wall beside his head and a dily norlesuit draped over a slidesea sandals Everything as it should be
"I feel like a damned Spinneret down here"
He spoke it aloud while rubbing his face Presently, he su for it The servo buzzed his hatch and he stepped out into an ehtside Seating himself in the servo, he ordered it to take hiht of construction overhead
I never needed open spaces shipside Maybe I’ hum full of subsonics
At the surface autosentry checkpoint, he keyed his code into the systeht for Condition 2 He swore under his breath, then turned to the lockers beside the topside hatch and took out a lasgun He knew the hatch would not open unless he did this The weapon felt clumsy in his hands and, when he holstered it, he was intensely conscious of the weight at his waist
"Doesn’t take much sense to know you shouldn’t live in a place if you have to carry a gun" He h that the blue acknowledge light winked at him from the sentry plate
Still the hatch re toward the override switch when he saw the little blinker at the botto: "Purpose of movement?"
"Work inspection," he said
The systeested this, then opened the hatch
Thomas slipped off the servo and strode out into the topside corridors, sure nohy he had awakened at this hour
Lab One
It was a mystery of peculiar odor
He found hi an occasional worker and the well-spaced extrusions of sentry posts, each with its arhtside landscape
Plaz ports showed Tho the southern horizon Pandora’s night was a buzz of shadows
After a space, the ring passage ramped doard into a hatch-distribution doe to Lab One was indicated by an "L-1" sign on his right He had taken only two steps toward it when it opened and a wo the hatch behind her It was dih plaz ports on his left, but there was no itation in herhis ar toward the external ports with a strength which astonished him
"Come here! I need you"
Her voice was husky and full of odd undertones Her face and arms were a mass of scratches and he sensed the unlesuit
"Wha"
"Don’t question me!"
There ildness, a touch of insanity, in her voice
And she was beautiful
She released him when they reached the barrier wall, and he saw the diency hatch to Pandora’s perilous open air Her hands were busy at the hatch controls, keying the override system in a way that did not set off the alarht wrist, guiding his hand to the lock th in her!
"When I say so, open this hatch Wait twenty-three minutes, then look for me Let me in"
Before he could find the words to protest, she slipped out of her singlesuit and thrust it at hiht it involuntarily with his free hand She already was crouching to thong her feet and he saw that she had a nificent body - smooth muscles, a supple perfection - but swatches of Celltape criss-crossed her skin
"What’s happened to you?"
"I warned you once not to question" She spoke without looking up, and he sensed the wild power in her Dangerous Very dangerous No inhibitions
"You’re going to run the P," he said He glanced around, looking for someone, anyone, to call on for help The circle of the distribution dome contained no other people
"Bet on
"Hoill I tell the twenty-three minutes?" he asked