ce. The hierarchy could surrender themselves and
whatever they were hiding in there at any point in the process. They
didn't have a chance. Nobody and nothing had escaped. The Scouts had
swatted down a few Devagas vessels on the way in; but those had been
headed toward the dome, not away from it.

Perhaps the Psychology Service ship had arrived, several days ahead of
time.

The other three weren't in camp, but the lock to the Commissioner's ship
stood open. Trigger went in and found them gathered up front. The
Commissioner had swung the transmitter cabinet aside and was back there,
prowling among the power leads.

"What's wrong?" Trigger asked.

"Transmitters went out," he said. "Don't know why yet. Grab some tools
and help me check."

She slipped on her work gloves, grabbed some tools and joined him. Lyad
and Mantelish watched them silently.

They found the first spots of the fungus a few minutes later.

"Fungus!" Mantelish said, startled. He began to rumble in his pockets.
"My microscope--"

"I have it." Lyad handed it to him. She looked at him with concern. "You
don't think--"

"It seems possible. We did come in here last night, remember? And we
came straight from the lab."

"But we had been decontaminated," Lyad said puzzledly.

"Don't try to walk in here, Professor!" Trigger warned as he lumbered
forward. "We might have to de-electrocute you. The Commissioner will
scrape off a sample and hand it out. This stuff--if it's what you think
it might be--is poisonous?"

"Quite harmless to life, my dear," said the professor, bending over the
patch of greenish-gray scum the Commissioner had reached out to him.
"But ruinous in delicate instruments! That's why we're so careful."

Holati Tate glanced at Trigger. "Better look in the black box, Trig," he
said.

She nodded and wormed herself farther into the innards of the
transmitters. A minute later she announced, "Full of it! And that's the
one part we can't repair or replace, of course. Is it your beast,
Professor?"

"It seems to be," Mantelish said unhappily. "But we have, at least, a
solvent which will remove it from the equipment."

Trigger came sliding out from under the transmitters, the detached black
box under one arm. "Better use it then before the stuff gets to the rest
of the ship. It won't help the black box." She shook it. It tinkled.
"Shot!" she said. "There went another quarter million of your credits,
Commissioner."

Mantelish and Lyad h