All Judgment Fled by James White Page A

audiences. "What are you two playing at?"
     
     
Walters looked at McCullough before replying, then he said, "This was

an idea we discussed during the trip out. Very simply, it involves us

leaning over backward in doing all the right things -- at least, we hope

they are the right things. Here we are assuming that the reactions and

motivations of the aliens are similar to our own where defense mechanisms

and self-preservation are concerned.
     
     
"In the present situation," he went on, "we are entering their ship

surreptitiously. It might even be argued that we are breaking and entering

or effecting an illegal entry in that we haven't been invited to come

in. The flares and radio signals during our approach may not have been

noticed -- they were not watching or listening, or maybe they are very

alien and do not have eyes or ears. But the opening and closing of the

airlock should register in a fashion understandable to them somewhere

in their control center.
     
     
"What we mean is, a burglar doesn't open and close a door, or even a

window, several times before entering . . ."
     
     
"Very well, I take the point. But if a stranger slammed my front

door several times to let me know he was there, I might feel, well,

irritated . . ."
     
     
While they were talking, McCullough investigated the open lock, shining

his torch around the rim so as to show any possible observer that it was

simply a source of light and not a weapon, before directing the beam

into the lock chamber. It was unlikely that anyone would be waiting

for them inside the lock; their situation might be more analagous to

the coal cellar manhole than the front door, but McCullough wanted to

establish habits of viewing each simple, innocent act as it might appear

to nonhuman eyes and mentalities.
     
     
He gripped the rim of the seal with one hand and carefully moved his head

and shoulders into the opening. Even though there was no interior lighting,

his torch gave him a good view of the lock chamber except where the

inward-opening seal blocked his vision on one side.
     
     
The basic color scheme was pale gray or pale blue-gray. Walls, ceiling

and floor -- it was impossible to tell which was which -- were covered

with disciplined masses of plumbing, grapples and what looked like

lashing points for heavy stores, all color coded in vivid greens, blues

and reds. The lock chamber was large, about thirty feet wide and ten

deep. Set into each wall were seals four or five times the area of the

one McCullough was using, and in the center of each there was a small

transparent panel. He knew they were transparent because his flash showed

tantalizing glimpses of other brightly painted shapes on the other side.

From what he could see, this area of the Ship was in darkness.
     
     
McCullough could imagine the chamber as a transfer point for containers

of food and equipment, lashed down to render them immobile until they

were distributed about the Ship. Heavy equipment drifting loose in the

weightless condition could be a menace to alien life and limb as well as

human. But the disposition of lashing points and their support brackets

suggested a lack of gravitational influence, whether natural, artificial

or due to acceleration, being allowed for in the design. Which might

mean that the interior of the Ship remained permanently in the weightless

condition even during periods of powered flight.
     
     
Something more advanced than rocket propulsion was used on this Ship.

But it all looked so -- so unsophisticated . . .
     
     
McCullough became aware of a hand gripping his ankle and drawing him

slowly out of the lock entrance, and Walters saying, "What's the matter,

didn't you hear what I said?"
     
     
"When my helmet antenna was inside," said McCullough, "your voice faded

to nothing. Some sort of screening effect, I suppose."
     
     
"Yes. And that is the next step, the colonel says. Checking communications

between the lock