deck.
30 He stepped in the conference room and found his two Senior Officers
leaning over the readout board.
31 "We've been monitoring you on the terminal," ananounced the Number
Two, "I imagine that's why you left the computer's receiver open.
There's no suggestion of anything like we've got on board anywhere in
this book. There's only a reference that any creature living in a
gaseous state would be highly unlikely."
32 Morn sat down. "There's something we're missing here, gentlemen," he
remarked. "we've got to find some way to capture or control this thing.
We're slowly denying it access to the ship's ventilation systems,
forcing it to travel through the halls. If we can get it in one area,
maybe we would be able to capture it."
33 A look of terror came over the other two Officer's faces. "Capture
it?" they cried in unison.
34 "Yes," Morn snapped, "Capture it! It has tremendous scientific
value. If we could learn how it carries fusionable matter around in a gaseous state, imagine what it could do
for say, our system engines!"
35 Both Officers saw the line in which Morn's thinking was moving.
"There's only one thing I don't understand," admitted Number Tnree,
"how did it know how to sabotage the air duct controls? That's a complex piece of equipment we're
dealing with! It didn't just destroy the controls at random, it
destroyed only the wiring to the sterile fields. How did it do it?"
36 "I've got a feeling," explained Morn, "it absorbs more than sugar
from its victims. The Doctor stated that in the final stages just
before the patients died, they began to suffer memory loss, especially
in the technical fields. I think this thing can suck out knowledge the
way it sucks out sugar, and it only takes what it wants. I'd lay odds
some of our Engineers already ..." Suddenly, the Communicator on the
end of the conference table began to