The Jupiter Plague

“It should be closing—” His words were cut off as another burst of firing tore the cloth covering from the opening and a shaft of burning light poured in. This time there was no answering fire from below and the light remained on. They dropped to the floor and saw the massive door outside swinging slowly toward them. More shots boomed out, a continuous fire, but it was aimed at the closing door not at the open lock. Bullets roared against the metal, screaming away in vibrating ricochets and still the door kept moving, coming on until it hit the steel plate over the opening. The plate bent, tore and the motor whined louder in the wall, then suddenly stopped. The plate had buckled and jammed leaving an opening just a few inches wide.

“The circuit breakers blew when the motor overloaded,” Yasumura said.

“It’s good enough.” General Burke stood up. “Now, how do we get the inner door opened? Can we cut through it with the laser?”

“We could — but it wouldn’t do much good. This door is sealed like a bank vault. A motor-powered ring gear inside the door turns pinion gears that drive out three-inch thick bars into sockets in the housing. We can’t cut them one by one.”

“The trouble then,” Sam asked, “is that something is stopping the current from getting to this motor in the door?”

“Yes-”

“Well, couldn’t you cut an opening in the door big enough to reach through and connect the motor to the power pack? Then you could move it as you did the outer door…”

“Sam, you’re wasted in medicine,” Yasumura shouted enthusiastically, “because that’s just what we’re going to do.” He began to draw on the sealed door with a grease pencil. “Here are the bars, the ring gear… and the motor should be about here. If we cut through at this spot we should miss the motor, but be in the central cavity where we can wire into it.”

He threw down the pencil and began to pull the wires from the power pack and to reconnect it. There were more shots from outside, but none of them found the narrow slot of the doorway. The laser buzzed and Yasumura pressed it to the door over the spot he had marked.

It was slow work. The metal of the door was dense and resistant and the laser cut only a fraction of an inch at a time as he worked it in a slow circle the size of a saucer. He finished the circle and went over it again to deepen it. The metal heated and stank. General Burke crawled over to the door, shielded his eyes from the light and tried to see out, then put his gun to his shoulder and fired a burst. He dropped low as the firing was returned and the lock rang like a bell with the impact of the slugs on the massive door.

“They’re bringing up a fire engine with a tower. I scattered them a bit. But they’ll bring it back again or someone will think to use a high-pressure hose and they’ll wash us out of here. How is it coming?”

“I should have cut through by now,” Yasumura gasped, leaning on the laser, “but this metal…” There was a clatter as the plug of metal dropped free.

“Now open it!” Burke snapped and fired another burst through the gap.

It was slow, painful work teasing the plug of metal out of the hole far enough to get a grip on it with a wrench. Sam stood ready, clamped down quickly as soon as he could and pulled the hot cylinder from the hole, throwing it the length of the air lock. Heedless of his smoldering sleeve, Yasumura flashed the light into the opening.

“There it is!” he chortled. “Bang on. Pass me the long-shanked screwdriver and the cables from the power pack.”

Attaching the wires at the bottom of the deep hole was exacting work, made even more difficult by the hot metal that burned into the little engineer’s flesh. Sam could see the angry welts rising on his skin and the way he bit hard on his lip while beads of sweat sprang out on his face.

“Done…” he gasped, and pulled the screwdriver out. “Turn on the power, the motor is hooked up.”

There was an angry whirring buzz from the opening that lasted almost a minute and, when it rose in frequency, Yasumura switched the electricity off. He squinted in through the opening with the light.

“The rods are withdrawn, so let’s see if we can push this thing open!”

They heaved against the door’s unyielding bulk, planting their feet on the deck and straining until their muscles cracked. It didn’t move.

“Once more—” Burke gasped, “and this time give it everything.”

With their lips drawn back from their clenched teeth they strained at the massive door and Haber dragged himself across the floor and struggled up on one leg to add his weight to the effort.

Slowly, with reluctant motion, it moved inward.

“Keep it going…” the general gasped as the gap widened, first a fraction of an inch, then more, until light streamed out and it was big enough to get through. “That’s enough…!”

Sam eased the wounded lieutenant back to the deck as Burke slid cautiously through the gap with his gun pointed before him. He lowered it and laughed brusquely.