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. It read: AIR-LOCK OPEN.
Which was very lucky for Joe-Jim, Hugh, and Bobo. Had they closed the doors behind them and had the little Converter contained even a few grams of mass available for power, they would have found themselves launched suddenly into space, in a Ship's boat unequipped for a trip and whose controls they understood only by analogy with those in the Control Room. Perhaps they could have maneuvered the boat back into its cradle; more likely they would have crashed attempting it.
But Hugh and Joe-Jim were not yet aware that the "apartment" they had entered was a spacecraft; the idea of a Ship's boat was still foreign to them.
"Turn on the lights," Hugh requested. Joe-Jim did so.
"Well?" Hugh went on. "What do you make of it?"
"It seems pretty obvious," answered Jim. "This is another Control Room. We didn't guess it was here because we couldn't open the door."
"That doesn't make sense," Joe objected. "Why should there be two Control Rooms for one Ship?"
"Why should a man have two heads?" his brother reasoned. "From my point of view, you are obviously a supernumerary."
"It's not the same thing; we were born that way. But this didn't just happen; the Ship was built."
"So what?" Jim argued. "We carry two knives, don't we? And we weren't born with 'em. It's a good idea to have a spare."
"But you can't control the Ship from here," Joe protested. "You can't see anything from here
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