"It does," Marie agreed.

"But we wouldn't have that kind of static over our radio, unless—" Verana's eyes widened until the pupils were surrounded by circles of white—"unless we were in outer space!"

We stared at the metal door that had imprisoned us, afraid even to speak of our fantastic suspicion.

I deactivated my radio.

Marie screamed as an inner door opened to disclose a long, narrow corridor beyond.

Simultaneous with the opening of the second door, I felt air press against my spacesuit. Before, our suits had been puffed outward by the pressure of air inside. Now our spacesuits were slack and dangling on our bodies.

We looked at each other and then at the inviting corridor beyond the open door.

We went single file, first Kane, then his wife Marie. Verana followed next and I was the last.

We walked slowly, examining the strange construction. The walls were featureless but still seemed alien. At various places on the walls were the outlines of doors without handles or locks.

Kane pressed his shoulder against a door and shoved. The door was unyielding.

I manipulated the air-vent controls of my spacesuit, allowed a small amount of the corridor's air into my helmet and inhaled cautiously. It smelled all right. I waited and nothing happened. Gradually, I increased the intake, turned off the oxygenating machines and removed my helmet.

"Shut off your oxy," I suggested. "We might as well breathe the air in this place and save our supply. We may need the oxygen in our suits later."

They saw that I had removed my helmet and was still alive and one by one removed their own helmets.

At the end of the corridor, Kane stopped before a blank wall. The sweat on his face glistened dully; his chest rose and fell rapidly. Kane was a pilot and one of the prerequisites for the job of guiding tons of metal between Earth and the Moon was a good set of nerves. Kane excited easily, his temper was fiery, but his nerves were like steel.

"The end of the line," he grunted.

As though to disprove the statement, a door on his right side opened 

 Prev. P 5/15 next