Transplant Read Free Page B

collect whatever the ship deemed necessary for the operation.
    ‘Looks like we’ll have to suit up.’ one of them said as four bright yellow anti-contamination suits spilled out onto the floor from a locker.
    ‘Something must have gone horribly wrong for us to have to wear suits.’ Glyn added, a feeling of dread welling up from his stomach.
    There had been a spate of mishaps in the hydroponics department of late, and the worrying events seemed to becoming more frequent.
    ‘Better check the route for the shortest possible journey, as this is one I don’t know.’ one of the team said, looking up at the spider web like corridor map on the wall.
    ‘It’s down three levels and off to one side of where we are now, and that’s quite a distance. You’d think they would have put in some form of simple transport, wouldn’t you?’
    ‘At least it gives us some exercise,’ Glyn said, ‘and one or two of us could well do with it.’ he added, with a glancing grin at one of the team who was a little over weight.
    Just then there was a loud thump as a purple canister with a white skull and crossbones on it came out of a chute and rolled across the floor of the equipment room.
    ‘This must be serious, I’ve never seen one of these before,’ Glyn said to no one in particular, ‘and what do we do with it? There are no instructions on it as far as I can see.’
    ‘I don’t like the sound of this event. I thought the Captain’s voice was a little strained when he spoke to us earlier, so maybe this is a major catastrophe.’ one of the team said.
    ‘Oh, come on, the Captain is only a computer voice, it can’t show any emotion like we can.’ Glyn felt sad that any of them should be so naive as to give credence to the story of the Captain being human and aloof from them all, hidden away in a little place of his own.
    ‘Well, it’s never been proved one way or the other, and I think there may well be something to it. After all, most things have broken down or developed a fault at some time, but the Captain never has, so perhaps he is real after all.’
    ‘Come on you two, we’ll sort this out later on if you really must, but drop it for now and let’s get on with the problem of the hydroponics cell.’
    The four of them staggered out of the room laden with an assortment of equipment that should fix just about anything, or so they thought.
    Clanking and rattling their way along the corridor, they came to the first of the lifts they would have to use. It was a tight squeeze to get all four of them in, and the equipment, but they made it, just.
    The lift was silent in its movement, and they only knew they had reached the lower level when the door hissed open to reveal a service tunnel.
    ‘I thought we were using the normal corridors.’ said Glyn.
    ‘So did I,’ Brendon added, ‘but it looks as if there is something wrong with the corridor we want or the lift doesn’t know what it’s doing.’
    ‘Let’s go back up and try coming down again, that should prove the point.’ Glyn suggested.
    One of the team shuffled round, found the correct button and they returned to the corridor they had started from.
    ‘Right, now let’s see what happens.’ and the lift descended once more to stop at the service tunnel.
    ‘I didn’t know such tunnels existed.’ commented one member of the team.
    ‘I’ve never seen one, although I did hear about them some time ago,’ added Brendon, grumpily ‘and I don’t like the idea of going in. We would have to bend up double and with all this equipment, I don’t think we could make it.’
    Glyn poked his head cautiously into the tunnel and looked up and down it. The light level was very low and it had a dry dusty smell about it, and then he spotted a very good reason for not entering.
    ‘It looks as if there are two rails sunk into the floor and that can only mean that something on wheels goes along it. If we are in the tunnel when whatever it is comes along......’ He didn’t