"I don't have to. You don't have to be a mechanic to see something's broken. I'll find it, and when I do you can come and fix it." He knew when it was useless to argue with her. "We'll both go," he said. "Jordan will stay at the controls." It was a dingy poorly lighted passageway in an older ship. Handicap Haven didn't rate the best equipment that was being produced, and even when it was new the ship had been no prize. On one side of the corridor was the hull of the ship; on the other a few small cabins. None were occupied. Anti stopped. The long hall ended in a cross corridor that led to the other side of the ship where a return passage led back to the control compartment. "We'll check the stern tubes," he said, still unable to see around her. "Open the door and we'll look in." "Can't," said Anti. "Tried to but the handle won't turn. There's a red light too. Does it mean anything?" He'd expected something like this but nevertheless his heart sank now that he was actually confronted with it. "It does. Don't try again. With your strength you might be unlucky enough to open the door." "There's a man for you," said Anti. "First you tell me to open it and then you don't want me to." "There's no air in the rear compartment, Anti. The combustion chamber's been retracted--that's why the rockets stopped firing. The air rushed out into space as soon as it happened. That's what the red light means." "We'd all die if I opened it now?" "We would." "Then let's get busy and fix it." "We will. But we've got to make sure it doesn't happen again. You see, it wasn't accidental. Someone, or something, was responsible." "Are you sure?" "Very sure. Did you see anyone while we were loading your tank in the ship?" "Nothing. How could I? I heard Cameron shouting, other noise. But I couldn't see a thing that wasn't directly overhead, and there wasn't anything." "I thought so. A geepee _could_ have got in without anyone seeing him. I didn't count them but I was certain all of them had dropped outside. I was mistaken; one of them didn't." "Why does it have to be a geepee?" "It just does, Anti. The combustion chamber was retracted while we were all in the control compartment. We didn't do it and therefore it had to be someone back here. "No man is strong enough to retract the cap, but if he somehow exerted superhuman effort, as soon as the chamber cleared the tubes rocket action would cease and the air in the compartment would exhaust into space." "So we have a dead geepee in the rocket compartment." "A geepee doesn't die or even become inactive. Lack of air doesn't hinder it in the least. Not only that, a geepee might be able to escape from the compartment. It's strong and fast enough to open the door against the pressure and get out and close it again in less than a second. We wouldn't notice it because the ship would automatically replenish the small amount of air that would escape."