Jones stood in an odd sort of harness
beside a set of control-switches that did not match the smoothly
designed other controls of the ship. He looked out of a plastic blister,
by which he could see around and below the ship. He made urgent signals
to a man Cochrane had never seen before, who sat in a strap-chair before
many other complex controls with his hands playing back and forth upon
them. A loudspeaker blatted unmusically. It was Dabney's voice, highly
agitated and uneasy.
"_ ... my work for the advancement of science has been applied by other
minds. I need to specify that if the experiment now about to begin does
not succeed, it will not invalidate my discovery, which has been amply
verified by other means. It may be, indeed, that my discovery is so far
ahead of present engineering--._"
"See here!" raged Cochrane. "You can't take off with Babs on board! This
is dangerous!"
Nobody paid any attention. Jones made frantic gestures to indicate the
most delicate of adjustments. The man in the strap-chair obeyed the
instruction with an absorbed attention. Jones suddenly threw a switch.
Something lighted, somewhere.
Pages:
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132