The smaller hangar was dimly lit. Ryo paused at the bottom of the ramp and let his dangerously chilled body soak up the warmth. When he was comfortable again he moved forward and peered cautiously around the opening at the end of the ramp. Nothing moved inside the hangar, but he thought he could discern voices far away. They must be on the far side of the hangar, he thought That meant they could not see anything at this end.

Ahead of him stretched ranks of planetary defense craft. The hangar was a miniature of the vast cavern located in the main base. Armed shuttlecraft were visible farther away. To his right, just beyond the first of the aircraft was a bulky, awkward shape that had to be the monsters’ shuttle.

Hurrying back up the ramp, he confronted a circle of anxious alien faces.

“There are guards about, but so far away I can only hear them. Your shuttle is close by. From what little I could see it seems intact.”

“Be our luck,” grumbled one of the monsters, “we’ll get down safely, get aboard and be all set to blow, and find out they’ve defueled the engines.”

“Relax,” Loo advised him. “You said they broke the chemical makeup of the solid fuel components a month ago. They know the stuffs inert until ignition. They’ve no reason to disassemble anything.”

“I’m not talking about reason,” the pessimistic monster continued, “I’m talking about luck. We’re going to need both to get out of this.”

“Let’s move,” Bonnie said sharply. She started down the ramp.

Ryo caught up and passed her, halted once more at the bottom. There was still no one in sight, but he fretted because the idle voices seemed slightly louder. “I will go first,” he announced. He noticed how tightly the monsters were gripping their makeshift weapons. One carried Eush’s energy rifle. “And please, no violence.”

“Did you tell that to the guard id the corridor,” said the engineer named Alexis, “before you clobbered him?”

“It was a careful blow, intended only to incapacitate, not to kill.” His tone was sharp, but the engineer was not offended.

Ryo stepped into the open and walked around the single aircraft. Up close, the monsters’ shuttle was clearly larger than a comparable Thranx craft, but not unduly so. It fit with room to spare beneath the vaulting ceiling of the hangar.

At first he could find nothing amiss. It was near the end of his check that he discovered a large metal plate dangling from the vessel’s stern. Returning to the rampway, he related what he’d seen.

“Sounds like they’ve been studying the coordinated feed and firing controls,” said Javier the engineer. She was a diminutive female not much taller than Ryo.