They all waved at him. Madera was one of
the Starmen's favorite acquaintances from Starlight Enterprise. He
strode across the tarmac and passed through the airlock and hailed the
young men.
After he had removed his helmet and exchanged hasty preliminary
greetings, he led them across the quad in front of the manufacturing
center and through the great doors.
"What have you discovered?" asked Mark.
"I think I can power up the computer system, but it will take a lot of
energy to do so. I used submicroscopic robotic probes to provide
detailed maps of the computer in the power plant, and some of the
wiring, machines, and selected other equipment inside this amazing
facility. I've detailed men to take portable power packs down to the
power plant and arrange them in sequence to give us enough power to
jump-start the computer. When we do that, we ought to be able to get
into the files you found earlier, Mark. Getting the power packs down
there is not easy, but with dozens of men working, I estimated that we
could get it hooked up in a couple of hours. That was the time I was
taking to study some diagrams I'd made, but instead took an involuntary
catnap."
"Why didn't you enter the power plant through the hangar from which we
escaped?" asked Zip.
"We looked for the opening in the place you'd indicated, but found no
evidence of any kind that there was an airlock.
Pages:
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249