"Back!" I yelled "I'm okay now. Come back!" He hesitated until I caught up with him, and then we secured the airlock together. Without order, the man shook the clumsy door shut, and Hendricks and I stood there[413] panting, breathing the fresh air.

Hendricks said: "Sir, this possibility is one we have overlooked." "Let's see what happened."

We opened the shutters of the nearby port and stared at the beach where we hurried away. Around our discarded clothes, three to four luminous things shrank invisibly, and ragged holes appeared in several places in the thin copper helmet. Even when we looked at them, they became nothingness. After a few seconds of hesitation, these things quickly swarmed back to the boat.

"Well," I commented, trying to reasonably release my voice from the feelings that bothered me, "I believe we are defeated, Hendricks. At least, we are helpless with them. Our only chance is them. Will leave before they are swallowed by the second skin, we can survive; as long as we still have it, we can survive...maybe be discovered."

Hendricks said slowly: "Sir, I suspect they will leave us, and what is left is just a piece of scrap metal." "There is something that frees them from their usual troubles. There is no reason why they should stay for uncertainty Under certainty. But we did not pass the attempt. I saw something—may I allow you to try again? Sir, sir?"

"Does the young man have a chance of success?" I asked, searching his eyes.

"One chance, sir." He replied, his gaze never wavering. "I can be ready in a few minutes."

"Then, move on-under one condition: You let me go with you."

"Very well, sir; you are willing. Prepare the other two breathing masks. I will be back soon."

Then he hurriedly left me, walking up the steps of two companions at a time.

Almost an hour before Hendricks returned, he brought two of the most amazing installations I have ever seen.

To make each container, he took a compressed air bottle from our emergency warehouse, and then inserted a hose from the hose into a cylindrical drinking water container. Another tube emerging from the water container, I think it is part of our fire extinguisher, and ends in a metal nozzle. Both tubes are tightly sealed in the mouth of the metal cylinder, and a knotted rope is tied tightly in each place so that two heavy containers, gas cylinders and small water tanks can be lifted from the shoulders Shake it off.

"He is here, sir," he said hurriedly, "put on the breathing mask and put on these things as I see them. There is no time to explain anything now, except for this: once you are out of the boat, turn it on. The valve of the compressed air bottle. Hold the hose from the water container with your right hand. Do not touch the metal nozzle. The way of using the hose is the same as using the portable disintegrator.

I nodded and followed his instructions as quickly as possible. The two containers are heavy, but I pulled the rope to my shoulder so that my left hand can easily reach the valve of the air bottle, and the water container is under my right arm to make full use of the hose.

"Let me go first, sir." When we stood in the airlock again, Hendricks took a breath and the door swung away from the threaded seat. "Let your eyes stare at me, do as I do!"

He escaped badly from the boat with a heavy burden. I saw him turn around to [414] Flask, and I did. My right hand shot a fine and powerful spray from the nozzle of the tube, and then I turned to face the boat.

There were several things that separated myself from the boat, and instinctively, I sprayed them with spray. Hendricks can do it, even if I can't see it. Now the most remarkable thing has happened.

The spray seemed to dissolve the crescent-shaped creature. A tattered hole appeared where it hit. Even through the muffler mask I was wearing, my ears made a hissing, hoarse sound.

"It works! It works!" Hendricks cried over and over again, barely realizing that he was wearing casual clothes. "We are saved!"

It took me a few seconds to let go of three things. In the thickest part of the crescent, the central core is always the last to go, and it seems to explode in bursts of sparks. Hendricks accounted for four in the same length of time.

"Look back, sir!" He nodded happily. "Let them come to us! We will get them when they come. They will come, okay! Look at them! Look at them! Come on, sir!"

There is no fear, no wisdom. But one by one, they felt the proximity of the copper helmets we were wearing and moved themselves away from the boat. They moved like red tongues of flame on the fatty side of El Tak; crawling, restless flames, quickly released one after another.

Our sprays meet them in the air, and they dissolve layer by layer like mist. ...I commanded my death spray with deadly joy, every glowing heart slapped and exploded, and I laughed to myself.

Sweat ran down my face. I was shaking with excitement, and the side of the boat had been cleared. They now slide over the top again and again, and we wipe them off as they go in and out.

Finally arrived something invisible. No one can fly over the top of this tried and tested ship.

"Order, stay here, Hendricks." I ordered. "I will look at the other side. I believe we all have it!"

I tried my best to get to the other side of the El Tak River. Her hull was pitted and corroded, but there is no other evidence that the crescent shape almost made the ship untimely, terribly over.

"Hendricks!" I happily said. "\'It's nothing more than success! \'That is our right! They are gone, everyone!"

I took things off my shoulders and ran back to the other side of the boat. Hendrix was performing some strange dance, flapping the containers, waving them wildly on his body with an understandable preference.

I suggest, "Come in, idiot, tell us how you did it. See how it feels to be a hero!"

"It's really good luck." A few minutes later, Hendex tried to convince us that Kincaid, Corey, and myself all patted him on the back and shook hands. "Sir, when you splashed into the water, I just tore off my mask. I saw some water falling on the mass of your helmet. I obviously heard a hissing sound when [415] fell. It fell. It forms a jagged hole that closes very slowly, leaving a dark spot in the tentacles where the tentacles are. As I think, in short, water short-circuits the electrical energy of things . That’s just a guess, but I think it’s a good guess.

"Of course, this is a long opportunity, but this seems to be our only opportunity. There is almost no acidified water in the container; of course, the air bottle only provides the pressure to pour the water out. Under the powerful spray, it It happened to work and no one was happier than me. I was young, and I wanted to do a lot of things before my bones were bleached by a desolate world. Even the name is not important enough!"

This is a typical work of Hendrix. He is a pragmatic scientist, willing and eager to try his own equipment. First of all, there must be a person who acts-it should be a person.

I think none of us had a very relaxing moment before returning to base. Our outer hull was weakened by at least half, and we had to increase the vacuum there to put most of the load on the inner skin. This is a difficult task, but those old ships are solidly built, and we did it.

When I completed my report to the Chief Executive, El Tak was immediately sent to the secret scene, under close surveillance, and installed a new outer hull.

The chief warned me: "This cannot be made public." "This will ruin the entire future of space travel, because people just learn to accept it for granted. You will vowed to keep the men completely confidential and communicate to you on behalf of your officer and yourself My word: I will not disclose any details of this trip."

Of course, the scientists asked me for several days. They raised their noses to the crude equipment they made, which saved all her crew, but I noticed that they were kept for future reference.

All ships were immediately provided with very similar but more compact equipment, which only military officers knew to use. As far as I know, scientists have never made much improvement to the model my third officer made for them.

I don’t know if these devices have ever been used. The silver sleeve is a crew member with a narrow mouth. Hendricks has always believed that the group of things that almost caused the death of all of us has wandered from some space beyond the margins we know to our part of the universe.

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