PART ONE
The Eve of RUMOKO
I was in the control room when the J-9 unit flaked out
on us. I was there for purposes of doing some idiot
maintenance work, among other things.
There were two men below in the capsule, inspecting
the Highway to Hell, that shaft screwed into the ocean's
bottom thousands of fathoms beneath us and soon to be
opened for traffic. Ordinarily, I wouldn't have worried,
as there were two J-9 technicians on the payroll. Only,
one of them was on leave in Spitzbergen and the other
had entered sick bay just that morning. As a sudden
combination of wind and turbulent waters rocked the
Aquina and I reflected that it was now the Eve of RU-
MOKO, I made my decision. I crossed the room and re-
moved a side panel.
"Schweitzer! You're not authorized to fool around
with that!" said Doctor Asquith.
I studied the circuits, and, "Do you want to work on
it?" I asked him.
"Of course not. I wouldn't know how to begin.
Butч"
"Do you want to see Martin and Demmy die?"
"You know I don't. Only you're notч"
"Then tell me who is," I said. "That capsule down
there is controlled from up here, and we've just blown
something. If you know somebody better fit to work on
it, then you'd better send for him. Otherwise, I'll try to
repair the J-9 myself."
He shut up then, and I began to see where the trouble
was. They had been somewhat obvious about things.
They had even used solder. Four circuits had been
rigged, and they had fed the whole mess back through
one of the timers. ...
So I began unscrewing the thing. Asquith was an
oceanographer and so should know little about electron-
ic circuits. I guessed that he couldn't tell that I was
undoing sabotage. I worked for about ten minutes, and
the drifting capsule hundreds of fathoms beneath us be-
