Found! by Isaac Asimov
Author:Isaac Asimov [Asimov, Isaac]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: sf
"Did you lose a pen, Joe?" I called out.
"No."
"Anything like that? Key? Cigarette?"
"I don't smoke. You know that."
A stupid answer. "Anything?" I said in exasperation.
"I'm seeing things here."
"No one ever said you were stable."
"Look, Joe. Over there. Over there.''
He lunged for it. I could have told him it would do no good.
By now, though, our poking around in the computer seemed to have stirred things up. We were seeing them wherever we looked. They were floating in the air-currents.
I stopped one at last. Or, rather, it stopped itself for it was on the elbow of Joe's suit. I snatched it off and shouted. Joe jumped in terror and nearly knocked it out of my hand.
I said, "Look!"
There was a shiny circle on Joe's suit, where I had taken the thing off. It had begun to eat its way through.
"Give it to me," said Joe. He took it gingerly and put it against the wall to hold it steady. Then he shelled it, gently lifting the paper-thin metal.
There was something inside that looked like a line of cigarette ash. It caught the light and glinted, though, like lightly woven metal.
There was a moistness about it, too. It wriggled slowly, one end seeming to seek blindly.
The end made contact with the wall and stuck. Joe's finger pushed it away. It seemed to require a small effort to do so. Joe rubbed his finger and thumb and said, "Feels oily."
The metal worm-I don't know what else to call itseemed limp now after Joe had touched it. It didn't move again.
I was twisting and turning, trying to look at myself.
"Joe," I said, "for Heaven's sake, have I got one of them on me anywhere?"
"I don't see one," he said.
"Well, look at me. You've got to watch me, Joe, and I'll watch you. If our suits are wrecked we might not be able to get back to the ship."
Joe said, "Keep moving, then."
It was a grisly feeling, being surrounded by things hungry to dissolve your suit wherever they could touch it. When any showed up, we tried to catch them and stay out of their way at the same time, which made things almost impossible. A rather long one drifted close to my leg and I kicked at it, which was stupid, for if I had hit it, it might have stuck. As it was, the air-current I set up brought it against the wall, where it stayed.
Joe reached hastily for it-too hastily. The rest of his body rebounded as he somersaulted, one booted foot struck the wall near the cylinder lightly. When he finally righted himself, it was still there. "I didn't smash it, did 1?"
"No, you didn't," I said. "You missed it by a decimeter. It won't get away."
I had a hand on either side of it. It was twice as long as the other cylinder had been. In fact, it was like two cylinders stuck together longways, with a construction at the point of joining.
"Act of reproducing," said Joe as he peeled away the metal.
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