er to where Multhaus and Mike the Angel were standing.

"Dig out three replacement switches--heavy-duty six-double-oh-B-nines,"
said Multhaus. There was a touch of disgust and a good-sized serving of
anger and irritation in his voice.

Mike the Angel surveyed the damage. "See anything else, Multhaus?"

"No, sir. That's it."

Mike nodded. "About five minutes' work to get the main switch going,
which will give us power, and another ten minutes for the first and
second stand-bys. Go ahead and take over, Multhaus; you won't need me.
I'll go find out what the bloody unprintable is going on around here."

* * * * *

Mike the Angel ran into Captain Sir Henry Quill as he went up the
companionway to the bridge.

"What happened?" demanded the captain in his gravelly tenor voice.

"Somebody ripped out the main switches to the low-power taps from the
main generators, sir," said Mike. "Nothing to worry about. The boys will
have the lights on within three or four minutes."

"Who...?"

"I don't know," said Mike, "but we'd better find out pretty fast.
There've been too many things going on aboard this ship to suit me."

"Same here. Are you sure everything's all right down there?"

"Absolutely, sir. We can quit worrying about the damage itself and put
our minds to finding out who did that damage."

"Do you have any ideas?"

"Some," said Mike the Angel. "As soon as the intercom is functioning
again, I think you'd better call a general meeting of officers--and get
Miss Crannon and Fitzhugh out of bed and get them up here, too."

"Why?" Black Bart asked flatly.

"Because Snookums has gone off his rocker. He's attacked at least one
human being that I know of and has ignored direct orders from a human
being."

"Who?" asked Black Bart.

"Me," said Mike the Angel.

Mike told Captain Quill what had happened as they made their way back up
to the bridge.

Ensign Vaneski, looking pale and worried, met them at the door. He
snapped a salute. "I just reported to Commander Jeffers, sir.
Something's wrong with the low-power circuits."

"I had surmised as much," said Black Bart caustically. "Anything new?
What did you find out? What happened?"

"When the lights went out, I was having coffee by myself in the
wardroom. I grabbed a torch and headed for Power Section as soon as I
could. The low-power room was empty. There should have been a man on
duty there, but there wasn't. I didn't want to go in