there for a short time. But I don't expect to find anything. It's mostly to keep them busy."

"How about the pipes, then?" asked Gilchrist.

"Internal gas pressure and velocity of circulation is just about what it always has been. According to the meters, anyway, which I don't think are lying. I don't want to block off a section and rip it out except as a last resort. It would just be wasted effort, I'm sure." Jahangir shook his turbanned head. "No, this is some phenomenon which we'll have to think our way through, not bull through."

Vesey nodded curtly. "I suggest you three go back to the common rooms," he said. "We'll be shunting all the power to food and oxy soon. If you have any further suggestions, pass them on ... otherwise, sit tight."

It was dismissal.

The rooms stank.

Some ninety human beings were jammed together in three long chambers and an adjacent kitchen. The ventilators could not quite handle that load.

They stood huddled together, children to the inside, while those on the rim of the pack hugged their shoulders and clenched teeth between blue lips. Little was said. So far there was calm of a sort—enough personnel had had intensive mind training to be a steadying influence; but it was a thin membrane stretched near breaking.

As he came in, Gilchrist thought of a scene from Dante's hell. Somewhere in that dense mass, a child was sobbing. The lights were dim—he wondered why—and distorted faces were whittled out of thick shadow.

"G-g-get inside ... in front of me," he said to Catherine.

"I'll be all right," answered the girl. "It's a fact that women can stand cold better than men."

Alemán chuckled thinly. "But our Thomas is well padded against it," he said.

Gilchrist winced. He himself made jokes about his figure, but it was a cover-up. Then he wondered why he should care; they'd all be dead anyway, before long.

A colleague, Danton, turned empty eyes on them as they joined the rest. "Any word?" he asked.

"They're working on it," said Catherine shortly.

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