Somewhere!"
51 The Engineer began to pace off after noticing a few other bumps
nearby. "If I remember what I saw in the Dream right," he commented,
"and this thing was built according to the model of the day, it should
be right about here."
52 "It will take us forever to dig," North commented, "but if you use
the exhaust from the bus you might be able to BLOW the sand away."
53 The Firing control Officer wasted no time. Less than half an hour
later the hatch was clear, and the others helped North down into the
hole.
54 "We may have to use the manual pump," the Engineer remarked, "little
chance there's power after all this time! I'll try the standard
emergency entry codes. You never know!"
55 To everyone's surprise the lights on the open access panel lit up,
and the outer hatch began to open. Light and warmth radiated from
inside. "We can only go in three at a time," ordered North. "I, the
Engineer, and Firing Control will go first. The rest of you follow as
soon as the outer hatch reopens."
56 North was surprised how similar the interior of the ship was to his.
Feeling his way along their passages he could sense, though, an area of
spaciousness. He remembered
that these old ships designed around bigger equipment than they had,
contained a lot of unused space.
57 They reached the command deck and North was sat in the command
chair, while the other Officers began to check the instruments. "I
don't believe it!" gasped Firing control, "They're fully functional!
Everything reads running and ready to power up!"
58 "Engineer," inquired North, "if we can orbit this ship, do you think
you could tear out the plates on one of their star drive engines and
use them?"
59 "If I remember," the Engineer said, "they're larger, wider and
thicker, but I think I could cut them