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Though occupied with his task, Deyv didn't forget the gray cross-marked beasts. Glances showed him that they had stopped. Their cries were puzzled. The leader had trotted closer to the cylinder, then stopped, his head cocked to one side.
When the one tree had been passed, and the other was halfway along the cylinder, Sloosh said, "Put it down! But hang on to it! Otherwise, one of the ends may swing around, and it could roll away!"
"I think I see what he means to do," Deyv muttered.
Vana asked, "What?"
Sloosh buzzed, "Now, Deyv! Tell your animals to get inside!"
Under other circumstances, Jum and Aejip might have been reluctant to enter the cylinder. The obvious intent of the ugly beasts made them eager to take shelter, however. They dived into the doorway.
Sloosh said, "Now, Vana, you get in! Hang on, Deyv!"
Deyv struggled to keep his end from swinging around under the wind. Vana darted alongside the cylinder and into its doorway.
"Now work your way toward the entrance! I'll be doing the same! If one end swings out, run as fast as you can and get inside!"
Synchronizing their progress step by step, they moved toward each other. Deyv's push against the cylinder wall would not have been as strong as Sloosh's, but the plant-man was trying to push with the same force as Deyv's. Before they were within twenty feet of each other, the cylinder began to swivel out at the end behind Sloosh.
By then the pack leader decided it was time to attack. Though no doubt hesitant because of the strangeness of the cylinder, he couldn't stand seeing his prey get away. He howled wolflike sounds and sped toward the doorway. Those behind him also charged, and the flanks broke into a run.
Deyv got inside first, then turned to pull Sloosh in. The Archkerri fell in just as the leader snapped at his hind legs. Vana stepped into the breach and slammed the edge of her tomahawk down across the top of the brute's head. The beast fell back, stu
All this action had taken place within a few seconds. Then the cylinder, still turning, also began rolling over. The door closed just in time. And they were off, the wind spi
Inside, all five were ru
A moment later, Jum, yelping, rammed into him.
Deyv was beaten, bruised, and shaken up worse than when he had been thrown off the tharakorm.
The nightmare finally ended, as all nightmares do. The cylinder stopped with a crash, and its occupants lay wherever they had fallen. There were groans and moans and whimperings. Deyv got up and groped to the doorway, the bottom of which was at chest-level. He hoisted himself through it into the first room.
At least, he hoped it was the room with the door to the outside. In his confusion, he might have gotten into the room which led to the interior.
From the noise, though, he was sure he was in the right place. He checked everybody out. Nobody was incapable of responding, but all were complaining of numerous pains.
His hands found the doorway, and a moment later he pressed the inset plate. Light flooded in as the door opened. It was at a 45-degree angle to the ground. Righting the cylinder was easy, however, as soon as they shifted their weight properly. Then all got out and were glad to do so.
The cylinder had stopped by the trees at the edge of the plain. Far off was the pack of gray cross-marked brutes. They were heading after some horned animal.
"Something happened there while we were rolling along," Sloosh said. "Did you press any other plates?"
Deyv looked inside. The furniture was gone.
Sloosh went back in but came back out in a few minutes.
"Where the furniture was, there are now a few places almost imperceptibly thicker than the floor," he said. "The furniture just folded up. But what caused it to do that?"
Deyv said he had no idea, which, of course, Sloosh knew. He'd survived the ordeal and wanted nothing more to do with the cause of it. Even if he was as curious as the Archkerri, he didn't have the knowledge to dare experiment.
Sloosh insisted they make a bunch of torches from rushes, which they soaked with flammable sap. After eating, they set out—in, rather—to explore the cylinder's interior. It wasn't easy even to walk around in it. Because of its extreme lightness, it tended to roll when they started up the steps to the upper level.
They retreated, made some crude wooden shovels, and then piled dirt along the bottom. They also lugged in a big pile of heavy stones to place on the bottom floor. Since stones were scarce in the area, a long time was spent in search of them.
By then it was past sleep-time. Despite the plant-man's protests, they bedded down. Whatever else it was good for, the cylinder did make a perfect protection from the rain. The door couldn't be shut entirely because they would soon exhaust the oxygen supply. With the animals stationed just behind the opening, they could sleep in relative safety, especially after they erected a barricade of thorn bushes across it.
When they did begin their investigation, Vana and Deyv held the torches for Sloosh. It was tedious work for them and a little spooky. The lack of good air circulation drove them outside from time to time.
Sloosh was hot on the scent, though, and he wasn't to be stopped by anything.
Most of the rooms were empty. The plant-man pointed out the very thin thickenings, which he said were collapsed furniture or devices. He ran his fingers along the walls and ceilings, tracing thin lines throughout the cylinder.
"These must be strips through which power was applied. So, let's track down the power supply."
They found it in the central portion. It was a cube about six inches wide. From one side of it protruded a long thin rod.
"I think it can be pushed in," Sloosh said. "But I won't do that. No telling what might happen. I wish I knew what fuel is used. There has to be some left, even after this long time. Otherwise, the door wouldn't have opened."
Finally, they entered the nose of the cylinder. This contained two chairs and a number of square very thin plates on a curve in front of the chairs.
Sloosh studied the room for a while.
"This has to be a vehicle. Probably to fly through the air. It's even possible it traveled through space.
Those plates would be viewscreens of some sort. They indicated flight data and who knows what else?"
Sloosh did some tracing of the strips. Finally, he stopped at a cluster of thumbprint-size plates. He reached out a finger to one, hesitated, then pressed. The humans jumped back, alarmed, as the chairs and the plates before them shrank, then folded up.
"Hmm! All this collapsing!" Sloosh said. "Could it be that..."
He stopped his buzzes and closed his eyes. Deyv looked at Vana and rolled his eyes. She coughed from the dark fumes of the torches.
Sloosh led them out of the room and back to the power cube. He looked at it for a while, then said, "Let's get all the rocks out of here."
"Why?" Deyv asked.
"No time to waste breath now. I'll tell you why later. If I'm right, if it'll be obvious why I want the stones out. By the way, pick up all the torches you dropped and clean the sap off the floors. I don't want anything in here that wasn't here when we entered."