"All right, then. It seems to me that this may be easier than we
thought," stated Zip.
"You have an idea already?" asked Joe, with a slight turn of his head.
"It seems obvious that this asteroid was not intended to house
prisoners. This room we're in is not a cell block-it's a dormitory."
"Right," said Mark. "Therefore the locking mechanism is not original to
the asteroid's design. Is that where you're going, Zip?"
Zip smiled. "Keep going," he nodded.
"Whoever made this asteroid was far in advance of our science and it'll
probably be a long time before we, or anyone else, learn how to alter
their design. But the locking mechanism was most likely put in by the
pirates, probably on short notice. It can't be too sophisticated a
system. Again, since this is a dormitory and not a cell, the wiring is
probably on this side of the door rather than in the hallway. Let's
find where the pirates rewired the door. Whatever they can do, we can
undo."
The Starmen leaped up and began to investigate the door and the walls
near it very carefully. Now that they had some idea of what they were
looking for, they hoped it would be easier to find an access panel of
some kind which their previous general search had missed. Minutes
passed with no result. The walls had no apparent seams, and the door
was set into the framework so closely that there seemed to be no space
between the door and the edge of the wall into which it slid.
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