113 "I'm sorry sir," the man explained, "but they
were the first two to die. Their observatory was right by the entrance
to the shafts. I guess whatever it was came out of the shafts and
infected them. Their equipment was the first stuff in the colony proper
to break down."
114 The shimmering glow left the second man and came over toward Morn.
It hit his force shield and, sterile field, jumping back again, and
backed off. Then, it entered the mutineer and the man seemed totally
unaware of its presence.
115 "All right," announced Morn, "I'm not going to detain you. You may
stay with your friends in the passenger pod."
116 Morn looked at his watch. "Commander, Mountain Of God," he cried,
"are you still monitoring? I just realized," said Morn, "I never told
you to cancel that order to fire. Considering the time that has gone
by, and the fact that we are still here, I take it you cancelled the
order on your own initiative."
117 "Affirmative," acknowledged the other Officer, "as soon as your
vessel was back in your control, I ordered weaponry to stand by."
118 "No apology under the circumstances, is necessary. And there will
be no mention of the error in my report. The intent of the order was
obvious and quite effective. I would have fired, you know, if they
hadn't surrendered. "
119 "If you hadn't," said Morn, "I would have been quite unforgiving.
Commander, this order might sound strange, but I want you to back off a
little. And if anything tries to leave this ship….an energy field,
anything, beam it! Don't stop beaming it 'til it disappears."
120 "An energy field?" muttered the other Commander.