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With the X-ray illuminators in place, the crew could see through the heavily tinted, fuzzy glass. The main<br />
deck was empty except for two large, jagged objects floating slowly by. They were nearly transparent<br />
except for a bent piece of metal embedded in a hole in one of them. Using the map of Dragon Slayer<br />
obtained from the archive files, Star-Glider was able to identify the hatch door to Pierre's tank. The hatch<br />
door was half open, and in the hatch Star-Glider could see a strangely shaped and colored blob. It was<br />
Pierre's head. At the center of the blob was a relatively dense violet structure with four holes in it. The<br />
bony skull was covered with blue-white flesh, while the top and bottom had faint yellow-white strands of<br />
hair.<br />
"Why doesn't he close the hatch door?" Bright-Star asked.<br />
"He is. It just takes a long time for the Slow Ones to doanything" Star-Glider replied. "If you come<br />
back in a few turns, you will be able to see that the hatch door is shutting. But it will take a dozen turns<br />
before he gets it closed and latched."<br />
Another flitter joined them. Riding on top was Watson-Crick, Professor of Humanology at the Inner Eye<br />
Institute and Chief Scientist on the expedition.<br />
"Admiral Star-Glider," he began. "I recognize that our original plan had been to study the humans and<br />
their spacecraft after the herder rocket has been fixed. But with all the humans in the protection tanks but<br />
one, and only the head of that one available for analysis, I was wondering if you might allow us some<br />
research time now, before Pierre closes his hatch door."<br />
"You wouldn't be asking if the legislature had only moved ahead on this project more quickly," said<br />
Star-Glider. "We would have been here two minutes ago and had three humans to study."<br />
"It is really too bad," Watson-Crick agreed. "Our modern<br />
instruments are much more sophisticated than the ones used the last time cheela had the opportunity to<br />
analyze a human."<br />
"When was that?" Bright-Star asked.<br />
"Over a thousand greats ago," Watson-Crick replied. "Could we have a dozen turns, Admiral?"<br />
Star-Glider considered. "I'll give you a half-dozen. Then we'd better get on with the main purpose of the<br />
mission—fix that rocket and rescue the humans."<br />
The humanologists were greatly disappointed that all they had to study was a human head, andit was<br />
over two meters from the porthole. But they did what they could and were finished when only five turns<br />
were up.<br />
06:55:06 GMT TUeSDAY 21 JUNE2050<br />
"Well," Star-Glider prompted as soon as Watson-Crick told him they were finished. "A whole human<br />
second has gone by. Let's get busy and rescue them. Head out to that malfunctioning herder rocket, then<br />
ready the cargo ship to put its replacement engine in place."
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