“Whoops,” said Carrie.
“Is that an expression of regret?” asked Gavin. “There is no need to apologise. You have made an interesting discovery. We must examine the other boxes. I do not know why the idea did not occur to me.”
They opened four boxes, each in different areas of the entrance bay. All were filled with oootoon. The liquid didn’t dry up under the dim red emergency lighting as it had in the strong sunlight on the planet surface.
“Perhaps this will help us convince the oootoon to release its hold on the ship,” said Gavin.
“I don’t see how,” said Belinda. “It’s hardly going to make the oootoon less belligerent to the placktoids if it knows they’ve been removing it from the planet and keeping it here.”
“It must already know it, or parts of it do. That’s why it’s attacking,” said
