a new experience for both, both having lived their lives virtually without clothes, in controlled environments, and sleeping weightless with a gentle restraint or supported by pressor fields.)
“The next day we went the other way to find food, to the lake. Jan went out into the water and washed her whole body in it, and called me. Since we no longer had the tingler I joined her. It was not the same, but not completely unpleasant either, and we did feel a lot better afterward. Up the beach a little way were rocks thrusting out of the water, and on them grew great clusters of bony things that Jan called bivalves. They weren’t easy to get off the rocks, and once touched they closed up tight; but we developed a skill with a bit of stone and a quiet approach, and managed to harvest a number of them. To swallow one at first was nauseating, but it was what you might call an acquired taste, and soon we were eating enthusiastically. It was while we were up there that the boat began to break up.”
Case looked up at the Doctor, standing patiently before him, but as usual his glance told him nothing. “It made a terrible noise, the plates shearing like that, and as we ran down the beach we could see it settling. It was just as if it lay in soft mud, but it didn’t; the sand under it was as solid as what we ran on, and dry. All the same, it was sinking, and breaking up. I’m telling you what I saw, what I remember,” he said defensively. The Doctor inclined his head and made a wordless motion for Case to continue. “I can’t help it,” Case grumbled. “It’s what happened.” When the blue man still did not respond, he went on:
“The nose and tail were crushed and sunk into the sand, and there were three new breaks in the hull. That’s when I saw the gyro bearings I told you about. The boat looked as if a giant had taken it by the two ends and bent it over his knee. The fin was flat on the ground now, and I looked in through the broken plates, and thenwhile Jan screamed at me not to, I scrambled inside. It was a mess, the way she’d said it was, and worse. Nothing answered on the console except the Abandon matrix and indicator lights showing that four, of the six lifeboats were ready for launch and the other two inoperative. I touched one of them and a ’belt launched from the wreck, shot across the beach and crashed at the edge of the forest where it exploded and set fire to the trees and drove Jan half into hysteria. I tried to shut down the matrix but the controls failed to respond, so I backed out—into Jan, who was afraid something had happened to me. I ordered her out. I suppose I was fairly forceful, it stopped the hysteria … and got out myself and ran around the hull. All of the launch ports had opened—two were all but underground. I crawled into the third one, where the coffin had just launched, and it was still hot, and Jan began screaming at me again, and I didn’t care, I went for the leads from the control center and ripped them off, and then crawled back to the launch booster and began to pull and pry at the release toggles. They came up and the coffin slid out on its rails and fell to the sand. I got into the space where it had been and was able to reach the control leads of Number Three. I had no trouble with the releases on that one but it would not slide all the way out; it just nosed into the sand. Because of that I couldn’t get to Four. Five and Six were the ones the board had said were inoperative, and it didn’t make any difference anyhow; they were underground.
“The hull plates overhead somewhere made a tremendous crackle; I can’t tell you what it was like inside there; it was as if the noise was inside my head. The whole structure settled, and I can’t tell you how I got out—I found myself on the sand outside Number Three just in time to see Jan trying to crawl into Number One, screaming again. I grabbed her around the hips and snatched her out (she screamed louder than ever
“The next day we went the other way to find food, to the lake. Jan went out into the water and washed her whole body in it, and called me. Since we no longer had the tingler I joined her. It was not the same, but not completely unpleasant either, and we did feel a lot better afterward. Up the beach a little way were rocks thrusting out of the water, and on them grew great clusters of bony things that Jan called bivalves. They weren’t easy to get off the rocks, and once touched they closed up tight; but we developed a skill with a bit of stone and a quiet approach, and managed to harvest a number of them. To swallow one at first was nauseating, but it was what you might call an acquired taste, and soon we were eating enthusiastically. It was while we were up there that the boat began to break up.”
Case looked up at the Doctor, standing patiently before him, but as usual his glance told him nothing. “It made a terrible noise, the plates shearing like that, and as we ran down the beach we could see it settling. It was just as if it lay in soft mud, but it didn’t; the sand under it was as solid as what we ran on, and dry. All the same, it was sinking, and breaking up. I’m telling you what I saw, what I remember,” he said defensively. The Doctor inclined his head and made a wordless motion for Case to continue. “I can’t help it,” Case grumbled. “It’s what happened.” When the blue man still did not respond, he went on:
“The nose and tail were crushed and sunk into the sand, and there were three new breaks in the hull. That’s when I saw the gyro bearings I told you about. The boat looked as if a giant had taken it by the two ends and bent it over his knee. The fin was flat on the ground now, and I looked in through the broken plates, and thenwhile Jan screamed at me not to, I scrambled inside. It was a mess, the way she’d said it was, and worse. Nothing answered on the console except the Abandon matrix and indicator lights showing that four, of the six lifeboats were ready for launch and the other two inoperative. I touched one of them and a ’belt launched from the wreck, shot across the beach and crashed at the edge of the forest where it exploded and set fire to the trees and drove Jan half into hysteria. I tried to shut down the matrix but the controls failed to respond, so I backed out—into Jan, who was afraid something had happened to me. I ordered her out. I suppose I was fairly forceful, it stopped the hysteria … and got out myself and ran around the hull. All of the launch ports had opened—two were all but underground. I crawled into the third one, where the coffin had just launched, and it was still hot, and Jan began screaming at me again, and I didn’t care, I went for the leads from the control center and ripped them off, and then crawled back to the launch booster and began to pull and pry at the release toggles. They came up and the coffin slid out on its rails and fell to the sand. I got into the space where it had been and was able to reach the control leads of Number Three. I had no trouble with the releases on that one but it would not slide all the way out; it just nosed into the sand. Because of that I couldn’t get to Four. Five and Six were the ones the board had said were inoperative, and it didn’t make any difference anyhow; they were underground.
“The hull plates overhead somewhere made a tremendous crackle; I can’t tell you what it was like inside there; it was as if the noise was inside my head. The whole structure settled, and I can’t tell you how I got out—I found myself on the sand outside Number Three just in time to see Jan trying to crawl into Number One, screaming again. I grabbed her around the hips and snatched her out (she screamed louder than ever
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