.
Its underside buckled from triphammer contact with rock slides and a few
larger logs. It grated to a bumpy halt, gouged, scarred, split, its
warped hull a forever useless thing.

Before opening the port he buckled the long knife at his waist, had
Carol do the same with the short one. He climbed out, breathing deeply
of the warm, moist air, savoring the incense of pine while helping Carol
to the ground.

* * * * *

They avoided the radioactive path made by the ship, picked their way
along the side of the strip until Carol pointed and cried, "There it
is!"

Ken gripped her arm. "You follow behind me, and if the welcoming
committee moves this way you get up in that big madrona over there."

"_What?_"

He pointed out the bear, watching from a wet tangle of brush. "If it's a
male--or a female with no cubs--we're probably all right."

"Oh. But what will _you_ do?"

"Don't argue, Lieutenant." His hand moved to the pommel of his knife.
Ranger training wasn't exactly qualification for tangling with a bear,
but long odds were becoming commonplace.

The animal remained where it was. They climbed over a rock slide and
faced a wide bronze door protected by a concrete foyer. Out a way from
the door was--

"Look, Ken--that's been a recent campfire!"

He whipped the blade from its sheath. "C'mon, kitten--get that knife
out!" He vaulted the ashes.

A six-inch square was cut deeply in the dense metal. Ken poised his
knife over a slot, and as Carol plunged her blade into the wall he
rammed his home to the guard.

With a squeak and a sigh the door, terraced like a vault portal, swung
outward slowly. Ken grabbed a recessed knob to hurry it up. Lights
flashed inside, flooding a man-changed interior.

He leaped across the raised threshold, dragging Carol with him, swung
the door shut and shot home two great bolts on its inner surface. On a
rack just beside the door was an automatic rifle, ready for instant use.
The psychologists had not known about the campfire, but they had planned
for the possibility of a hostile builder.

Ken and Carol looked about the first of the labyrinthine caverns.
Squared walls were lined solidly with glass-enclosed bookshelves
stretching as far as they could see. Crowding the floor were machines,
cabinets of tools, implements, instruments, weapons and medical and
surgical supplies.

They moved to stand before a large video screen set near the door. Ken
flipped