Starquake.pdf

They worked their way through the maze to the inner compound where Newton-Einstein was at the
communicator.
"Yes. She just arrived," said Newton-Einstein. "I will give her the directions."
Qui-Qui was hoping to hear the familiar voice of Cliff-Web again, but Newton-Einstein had obviously
finished the conversation and wasn't willing to wait another two grethturns.
"Greetings, Teacher Qui-Qui," Newton-Einstein said, his eye-balls seemingly locked on her newly
restored eye-flaps. "Rejuvenation has certainly treated you well. I would be glad to take lessons from you
any turn."
Qui-Qui now regretted the necessity that had required her to mate with some of the young nubile males
so long ago. They grew up so quickly and now seemed so brash.
"What were the directions from the spacers?" she asked, ignoring his remarks.
"Cliff-Web now feels that I am properly prepared to evaluate the condition of the gravity catapults on
Egg. He suggests that we start with the ones at the West Pole, since they were furthest from the
epicenter. Shall we go?" He moved closer and extended an eye-stub out to her.
"We will bring Coulomb-Force along with us," said Qui-Qui, taking charge once again.
"Why?" Newton-Einstein asked. "He knows nothing about gravitational engineering. Besides, he is
needed here to keep the power generators running."
"I brought a robot to take care of the power generators," Qui-Qui explained. "You forget that a gravity
catapult also needs a power plant. While you are checking out the status of the gravity catapult,
Coulomb-Force can be finding out if we have some way to run it."
"If you say so." Newton-Einstein was obviously disappointed that he wouldn't be taking the trip alone
with Qui-Qui.
"Show me the rest of the compound." Qui-Qui started off down a corridor that had alternating stripes of
dust and hard rock on the floor. "Then we should be on our way." Quick-Writer hurried to block her
path.
"We don't have this one activated," said Quick-Writer. "But you should learn what those alternating
stripes in the dust mean when you come across them in the maze."
"Another shock treatment?" asked Qui-Qui.
"Worse," said Quick-Writer. He pressed a portion of a picture on the wall in a coded pattern to activate
the trap.
"Careful," warned Coulomb-Force.
"Sooner or later we are going to have to learn to do this with our eyes under flaps," said Quick-Writer.
He didn't pull in his eyes, but moved quickly over the striped pattern on the floor, his tread developing an
exaggerated rippled that allowed his tread to touch the hard crust, but bridged over the undisturbed dusty