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A microphone does not transmit a message when it sends an unvarying tone. A message has to be unpredictable or it conveys no message. Orderly clicks, even if overheard, might seem to Plumies the result of methodically operating machinery. A race capable of interstellar flight was not likely to be interested or thrilled by exercises a human child goes through in kindergarten.
A Plumie in a pressure suit just came out of their air lock. It's carrying a parcel toward our air lock." Taine snarled instantly: "They'll sneak something in the Niccola to blast it, and then cut free and go away!" The skipper said very grimly: "Mr. Taine, credit me with minimum brains! There is no way the Plumies can take this ship without an atomic bomb exploding to destroy both ships.
At his first words Taine burst into raging commands for men to follow him through the Niccola's air lock and fight a boarding party of Plumies in empty space. The skipper very savagely ordered him to be quiet. "Only one figure has come out," reported Baird. The skipper watched on a vision plate, but Baird reported so all the Niccola's company would know.
"Three items, sir," said Baird. He drew a deep breath. "For the first, sir, the Plumie ship is unarmed. They've tractor and pressor beams for handling material. They probably use them to build their cairns. But they weren't meant for weapons. The Plumies, sir, hadn't a thing to fight with when they drove for us after we detected them." The skipper blinked hard. "Are you sure of that, Mr. Baird?"
It was that if the Niccola were destroyed the Plumie would carry news of the existence of humanity and of the tactics which worked to defeat them. The Plumies could prepare an irresistible fleet. Humanity could be doomed. But he overheard himself saying bitterly: "I wish I'd known this was coming, Diane. I ... wouldn't have resolved to be strictly official, only, until we got back to base."
They have to aim something a pressor or tractor beam, most likely and pick off each rocket separately. Nearly forty seconds was consumed in taking over all twelve of our rockets. At shorter range, with less time available, a rocket might get through!" The skipper swore briefly. Then: "Mr. Taine! When the Plumies are near enough, our rockets may strike before they can be taken over! You follow?"
Which will be no loss to us because we'll be dead then, still going on into the sun to be vaporized with the ship. There is nothing to be done about it. We can do nothing to save our own lives!" He glared out of each and every one of the screens, wherever there were men to see him. "But," he rumbled, "the Plumies can get away if we help them. They have no cutting torches. We have.
There were soprano sounds, and he waved a hand for attention. Then he zestfully held up one diagram after another. Baird drew a deep breath. A very deep breath. He pressed the navigation-room call. The skipper looked dourly at him. "Well?" said the skipper forbiddingly. "Sir," said Baird, very quietly indeed, "the Plumies are talking by diagram over the communicator set we gave them.
"They won't operate in a magnetic field above seventy Gauss, sir. It's a static-charge reaction, sir, and in a magnetic field it simply stops working." The skipper regarded Baird unwinkingly for a long time. "I think you are telling me," he said at long last, "that the Plumies' drive would work if they were cut free of the Niccola." "Yes, sir," said Baird.
Rocket crews get into suits and prepare to board this Plumie " "Countermand!" bellowed the skipper from the speaker beside Baird's ear. "Those orders are canceled! Dammit, if we were successfully boarded we'd blow ourselves to bits! Those are our orders! D'you think the Plumies will let their ship be taken? And wouldn't we blow up with them? Mr.
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