95 "Monitoring," acknowledged the battleship's
Commander.
96 One of the Miners looked at his leader. "He's bluffing," he insisted.
97 His leader shook his head. "This isn't a man that bluffs," he
reached over and took the man's sword. "I'll surrender my weapons," he
agreed, "on your guarantee that we won't be sent to an isolation colony
or, that none of my people will be executed. I bear all blame. "
98 "Agreed!" answered Morn.
99 The other men surrendered their weapons. "All right, "Morn ordered,
"everybody except your leader, out of my ship, back into your pod."
100 The other men were through as the Engineers who had been kept in
one of the system drive engine rooms came out and began to take their
stations. Morn didn't like their look. They had lost a lot of weight
and looked tired. "Chief Engineer," he suggested, "I'll get some men
down here to relieve you and you can go up to the isolation ward."
101 "I beg your pardon, sir," objected the Engineer, "but that isn't a
good idea. We're already contaminated. To expose others would be an
unnecessary risk."
102 "All right," agreed Morn, "but if you get much worse off, I may
have to send you out."
103 The Engineer nodded. Morn turned back to the mutiny leader. "All
right," he continued, "I want you to tell me exactly how all this
happened ...how it began."
104 "Well, everything was fine," the man explained, "until a few weeks
ago. Our machinery in the tunnels started breaking down. It was the
damndest thing I ever saw! As fast as we put new gaskets in them, the
gaskets would give out….just disintegrate! The ones we'd leave laying
around after we took them out, turned to powder. Finally, we gave up,
figuring the gaskets were defective and we'd wait for new ones. The
equipment on the surface was working,