"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 27 - Earth is Heaven" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

useless. We're down to negative efficiency. It's the catalysts," he
explained. "You know how they work. Air is circulated through
the exchangers and wastes are removed; dust, foul odors, all the
rest of it. The catalysts take care of the oxygen content. Ours
don't."

"Repairs?"

"Sure—as soon as I get replacements."

No solution in the present circumstances. Dumarest said,
"Can't something be done with what we have? The units rebuilt
or reconditioned?"
 For answer Craig held out a thing of plastic and metal; it was
shaped, fitted with vanes, set with holes, rimmed with frets now
pitted and scarred. A catalyst unit now almost unrecognizable as
such.

"The rest are about the same."

Useless even for scrap. "How long, Jed?"

"Can we last?" Craig frowned, thinking, one hand rising to
touch the scar along his face. "Not long," he decided. "Call it a
matter of days—a week at the most. That's using all resources.
We'll have to land, Earl. And soon."

That decision was backed by Ysanne when she joined
Dumarest in the salon with her charts and almanacs. "With only
a week's air we've little choice. We can reach Aschem or Trube.
Aschem is the closest. We can make it in good time."

He said, "If we hadn't discovered the breakdown for, say, a
couple more days where would we have had to land?"

"Aschem." She didn't hesitate. "It's on our line of flight."

And, on Aschem, the Cyclan would be waiting.

Dumarest was certain of it. The stale air would have left them
no choice as to destination and, but for his instinct, the
breakdown wouldn't have been discovered. The headaches would
have been put down to excessive fatigue; the lassitude the same;
the sweating an added inconvenience. The build-up of carbon
dioxide would have been an insidious poison dulling the very
intelligence needed to discover it.

Sabotage—the incident reeked of it, but he said nothing.

"Earl?" Ysanne stared at him, frowning. "We have to pick one