There was a rustle behind them, and Nikolai’s legless form appeared from a lateral shaft. He fell to the corridor between them, catching himself with his arms just before he struck the deck. Once more Arvid marveled at how agile a legless man could be in low gravity.
“Whert have you been?” Dmitri demanded.
Nikolai ignored him and turned to Arvid. “Comrade Commander, I have success,” he said.
“Come.” Arvid led the way out of the air shaft. They took their time about attaching the grill covers. Arvid worked in silence. Although he didn’t feel especially tired, he thought of how exhausted he was, and presently he felt it. Be wary. Do not let them know our true strength. Dmitri says this. I am beginning to think like KGB now. Is this good?
“I have seen women,” Nikolai said in an undertone.
“Ah,” Dmitri said.
Arvid felt a twinge. Women! I have been long in space — “Where?”
“In the center of the ship, in a garden area, Comrade Commander. They were with the American, Dawson.”
Dawson! How has he deserved this — “The newly arrived warriors,” Dmitri said. “They came with those. New prisoners from Earth. Were they Russian?”
“No, Comrade Colonel. They were by their dress American. There were children also. Three women, two children, a man, and Dawson. I could not know what they were saying.”
Nikolai lifted the heavy grill. Crippled, Arvid thought. He has more strength in his arms than I have in my legs.
“Tell us,” Dmitri said.
“As you ordered, I explored farther than ever before. At first I took each turn that presented itself. There are grills everywhere. There are radial ducts. Some ducts are too small even for me, but” — Nikolai stretched his antis above his head, exhaled completely, and grinned. — “I can make myself narrow.
“The fore end of Thuktun Flishithy is too far. We expect to find the bridge there, but I made no try to reach it. I saw a big mom full of sleeping fithp, all females, sleeping with all four feet gripping the wall rugs, like gigantic fleas. I saw a slaughterhouse or a kitchen. Fithp were cutting up plants and animal parts and— and arranging them, but there was nothing like a stove.
“I tired of this and went inward along radial ducts. I found the room of the Podo Thuktun, and the priest all alone at the television screen. He muttered to himself, too tow to understand. I found the greetthouse region. It is lighted. It was there that I saw Dawson and the newcomers. They were all at work planting things. The garden is at the center of the ship. There were many fithp.
“I saw no need to watch Dawson longer, and I had little time, so I continued aft. I found what may be a bridge aft of the greenhouse. No ducts run aft of that point. It may be an engine room, serving the main drive, but it is also an emergency bridge.”
“Da,” Dmitn said. “At the axis it would be quite safe, like the Podo Thuktun. So?”
“The room is circled by television screens, square and thick, with the same proportions as the Podo Thuktun. I saw our prison, empty, of course. I saw Dawson and one of the newcomers, a redhaired woman, working in the garden. They worked together, but they ignored each other. I saw you, Comrade Rogachev. Heh-hehheh. Very industrious you looked.”
“Go on,” Arvid said,
“There was much on those screens. One showed three of the fithp watching a viewscreen. On the screen they were watching, were scenes of a man and a woman-Comrades, the man had an enormous pecker, and she swallowed it, all of it.”
“What is this?’ Dmitri asked sharply.
“I have told you what I saw,” Nikolai said. “On one viewscreen were three fithp who watched a viewscreen. On that viewscreen was that scene, and others like it.”
“What else did the woman do?” Arvid asked.
“Nonsense,” Dmitri hissed. “What did the fithp do when they saw this?”
“Comrade Colonel, they must have found it interesting, because they rewound the tape and watched it again. Then they spoke among themselves, and spoke into communications equipment.”
“So,” Dmitri said to himself.
“What?” Arvid demanded.
“I do not know why, but I find it disturbing,” Dmitri said. “Did you see who they spoke with?”
“No. Soon that screen was blank. I waited, but there was no more. Then when I was ready to leave, I saw two views of the main control room, and there is a window, so it must be at the fore end. I knew there must be other screens, so I circled through the ducts for another view.” Nikolai’s voice had dropped until he was nearly whispering. Dmitri and Arvid crowded close. They pretended to have difficulty replacing the fastenings for the grill.
“I saw outside. Four screens in a row. Three look at the stars, and the views move back and forth. So does the fourth, but it looks out on black rock. At one end of its swing the screen looks along the hull of Thu ktun Flishithy. The fore end is right up against the rock,
