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167
The Status Civilization
·
Robert Sheckley
119
But,
as
the
door
opened,
darkness
closed
irrevocably
around
him.
He
thought
he
could
see
startled
faces,
hear
a
voice
shouting,
"Watch
out!
He's
armed!"
And
then
the
blackness
closed
in
completely,
and
he
fell
endlessly
forward.
Chapter
Twenty-Two
Barrent's
return
to
consciousness
was
sudden
and
complete.
He
sat
up
and
saw
that
he
had
fallen
inside
the
control
room.
The
metal
door
was
closed
behind
him,
and
he
was
breathing
without
difficulty.
He
could
see
no
sign
of
the
crew.
They
must
have
gone
after
the
guards,
assuming
he
would
stay
unconscious.
He
scrambled
to
his
feet,
instinctively
picking
up
his
needlebeam.
He
examined
the
weapon
closely,
then
frowned
and
put
it
away.
Why,
he
wondered,
would
the
crew
leave
him
alone
in
the
control
room,
the
most
important
part
of
the
ship?
Why
would
they
leave
him
armed?
He
tried
to
remember
the
faces
he
had
seen
just
before
he
collapsed.
They
were
indistinct
memories,
vague
and
unfocused
figures
with
hollow,
dreamlike
voices.
Had
there
really
been
people
in
here?
The
more
he
thought
about
it,
the
more
certain
he
was
that
he
had
conjured
those
people
out
of
his
fading
consciousness.
There
had
been
no
one
here.
He
was
alone
in
the
ship's
nerve
center.
He
approached
the
main
control
board.
It
was
divided
into
ten
stations.
Each
section
had
its
rows
of
dials,
whose
slender
indicators
pointed
to
incomprehensible
readings.
Each
had
its
switches,
wheels
rheostats,
and
levers.
Barrent
walked
slowly
past
the
stations,
watching
the
patterns
of
flashing
lights
that
ran
to
the
ceiling
and
rippled
along
the
walls.
The
last
station
seemed
to
be
some
kind
of
overall
control
for
the
rest.
A
small
screen
was
marked:
Coordination,
Manual/Automatic.
The
Automatic
part
was
lighted.
There
were
similar
screens
for
navigation,
lookout,
collision
control,
subspace
entry
and
exit,
normal
space
entry
and
exit,
and
landing.
All
were
automatic.
Further
on
he
found
the
programming
screen,
which
clicked
off
the
progress
of
the
flight
in
hours,
minutes,
and
seconds.
Time
to
Checkpoint
One
was
now
29
hours,
4
minutes,
51
seconds.
Stop-over
time,
three
hours.
Time
from
Checkpoint
to
Earth,
480
hours.
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