“That’s odd. I’m sure I can feel something. Are you sure."
“Of course I’m sure," Horza said, putting all his weight behind the gun. The door gave way, revealing tubes, fiber-runs, metal
bottles and
various other unrecognizable bits of machinery, electrics, optics and field units.
“Ouch!" said the shuttle.
“Hey!" Horza shouted. “It just blew open! There’s something on fire in there!" He raised the gun, holding it in both hands.
He sighted
carefully; about
there.
“
Fire!
" yelped the shuttle. “But that’s not possible!"
“You think I can’t tell
smoke
when I see it, you crazy goddamned machine." Horza yelled. He pulled the trigger.
The gun exploded, throwing his hands up and him back. The noise of the shuttle’s exclamation was covered by the crack and
bang of the
bullet hitting inside and exploding. Horza covered his face with his arm.
“I’m blind!" wailed the shuttle. Now smoke really was pouring from the compartment Horza had opened. He staggered into the
control
compartment.
“You’re on fire in here, too!" he yelled. “There’s smoke coming out everywhere!"
“What. But that can’t be—"
“You’re on fire! I don’t know how you can’t feel it or smell it! You’re burning!"
“I don’t trust you!" the machine yelled. “Put that gun away or—"
“You’ve got to trust me!" Horza yelled, looking all over the control area for where the shuttle’s brain might be located.
He could see screens
and seats, readout screens and even the place where manual controls might be hidden; but no indication
of where the brain was. “Smoke’s
pouring out everywhere!" he repeated, trying to sound hysterical.
“Here! Here’s an extinguisher! I’m turning mine on!" the machine shouted. A wall unit spun round, and Horza grabbed the bulky
cylinder
attached to the inside of the flap. He wrapped his four good fingers on his injured hand round the pistol grip. A
hissing noise and a light vapor-
like steam was appearing from various places in the compartment.
“Nothing’s happening!" Horza screamed. “There’s loads of black smoke and its—arrch!" He pretended to cough. “… Aargh! It’s
getting
thicker!"
“Where is it coming from. Quickly!"
“Everywhere!" Horza yelled, glancing all round the control area. “From near your eye… under the seats, over the screens, under
the
screens… I can’t see… !"
“Go on! I can smell smoke, too, now!"
Horza looked at the slight smudge of gray filtering into the control area from the spluttering fire in the short corridor
where he had shot the
craft. “It’s… coming from those places, and those info screens on either side of the end seats, and…
just above the seats, on the side walls
where that bit juts out—"
“What." screamed the shuttle brain. “On the left facing forward."
“Yes!"
“Put that one out first!" the shuttle screeched.
Horza dropped the extinguisher and gripped the gun in both hands again, aiming it at the bulge in the wall over the left-hand
seat. He pulled
the trigger: once, twice, three times. The gun blasted, shaking his whole body; sparks and bits of flying
debris flew from the holes the bullets
were smashing in the casing of the machine.
“EEEeee…" said the shuttle, then there was silence.
Some smoke rose from the bulge and it joined with that coming from the corridor to form a thin layer under the ceiling. Horza
let the gun
down slowly, looking around and listening.
“Mug," he said.
He used the hand-held extinguisher to put out the small fires in the wall of the corridor and where the shuttle’s brain had
been, then he went out
into the passenger area to sit near the open doors while the smoke and the fumes cleared. He couldn’t
see any Eaters on the sand or in the
forest, and the canoes were out of sight, too. He looked for some door controls and found
them; the doors closed with a hiss, and Horza
grinned.
He went back to the control area and started punching buttons and opening sections of paneling until he got some life from
the screens.
They all suddenly blinked on while he was fiddling with some buttons on the arm of one of the couch-like seats.
The noise of surf in the flight
deck made him think the doors had opened again, but it was only some external microphones
relaying the noise from outside. Screens
flickered and lit up with figures and lines, and flaps opened in front of the seats;
control wheels and levers sighed out smoothly and clicked into
place, just ready to be held and used. Feeling happier than
he had been in many days, Horza started an eventually successful but longer and
more frustrating search for some food; he
was very hungry.
Some small insects were running in orderly lines over the huge body collapsed on the sands, one hand of which was sticking,
charred and
blackened, into the dying flames of a fire.
The little insects started by eating the deep-set eyes, which were open. They hardly noticed as the shuttle rose, wobbling,
into the air,
picked up speed and turned inelegantly above the mountain, then roared off, through the early evening air, away
from the island.