LUCKY STARR #3: MOONS OF JUPITERRINGS O by Isaac Asimov

Author:Isaac Asimov
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780553296822
Publisher: Spectra
Published: 1993-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

Lucky's predicament was a duplicate in reverse of that which had faced Bigman some hours previously. Big-man had been threatened not by heat but by growing cold. He was held in the grip of the stony "ropes" as firmly as Lucky in the grip of the metal robot. In one respect, though, Bigman's position held hope. His numbing grasp held desperately on the blaster pinned in Urteil's hand.

And the blaster was coming loose. In fact, it came free so suddenly that Bigman's numbed fingers nearly dropped it.

"Sands of Mars!" he muttered, and held on.

If he had known where in the tentacles a vulnerable spot might be, if he could have blasted any part of those tentacles without killing either Urteil or himself, his problem would have been simple. As it was, there was only one gamble, not a good one either, open to him.

His thumb worked clumsily on the intensity control, pushing it down and down. He was getting drowsy, which was a bad sign. It had been minutes since he had heard any sign of life from Urteil.

He had intensity at minimum now. One more thing;

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he must reach the activator with his forefinger without dropping the blaster.

Space! He mustn't drop it.

The forefinger touched the proper spot and pushed against it.

The blaster grew warm. He could see that in the dull red glow of the grid across the muzzle. That was bad for the grid since a blaster was not designed to be used as a heat ray, but to deep Space with that.

With what strength was left him, Bigman tossed the blaster as far as he could.

It seemed to him then as though reality wavered for a moment, as though he were on the edge of unconsciousness.

Then he felt the first glow of warmth, a tiny leakage of heat entering his body from the laboring power-unit, and he shouted in weak joy. That heat was enough to show that power was no longer being drained directly into the voracious bodies of the heat-sucking tentacles. He moved his arms. He lifted a leg. They were free. The tentacles were gone.

His suit-light had brightened, and he could see clearly the spot where the blaster had been thrown. The spot, but not the blaster. Where the blaster should be was a sluggishly moving mass of gray, intertwining tentacles.

With shaky motions, Bigman snatched at Urteil's own blaster, setting it to minimum and tossing it past the position of the first. That would hold the creature if the energy of the first gave out.

Bigman said urgently, "Hey, Urteil. Can you hear me?"

There was no answer.

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With what strength he could muster he pulled the space-suited figure away with him. Urteil's suit-light glimmered, and his power-unit gauge showed itself as not quite empty. The temperature inside his suit should return to normal quickly.

Bigman called the Dome. There was no other decision possible now. In their weakened condition, with their power supply low, another encounter with Mer-curian life would kill them. And he would manage to protect Lucky's position somehow.

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