Seeing there was no one else inside, he shut the door, crawled
under a cabinet, and turned off his light.
After a short while, he felt the floor tremble slightly. He knew that a
spaceship had lifted off. It was followed quickly by five others. "The
smugglers are gone," he thought. "Just one more now. If I hear one
more, I'll know that he's gone." He waited, desperately hoping he
wouldn't hear the sound of the door opening.
After they left Gene, the smugglers Kimball, Lorry, and Jenner quickly
gathered together their men and supplies and headed for the airlock to
the launching pad. There were thirty-seven men altogether. All had
their spacesuits on and most of them carried lights.
"How are we going to get out of here?" asked one of the men as they
approached the airlock. "The airlock won't open. Nothing's working."
"Portable power pack," said Kimball. He took a small box from another
man, set it down by the airlock, and in seconds had established a
makeshift connection. The airlock opened. In that fashion, the men
boarded their ships without delay.
Kimball lifted off first and entered the vast, stone tunnel that led to
the outside. As soon as the enormous airlock became visible down the
shaft, he fired a laser cannon at it. Unable to resist an attack from
within, the great door, thousands of years old, shattered into
fragments.
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