[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
them. "I was listening in on the intercom. There's been an open channel out of
your cub-byhole for months, but you never knew it."
Oh, great. Then they had heard his mutterings in pri-vate, when he thought he
was hiding from the rest of them.He suddenly realized with a flush of
embarrassment thatShelley and the rest must have heard some of the com-ments
he had mumbled of late concerning Shelley, as well.
He looked up at her and the moment of eye contact was enough. She blushed and
he quickly turned away,and the other three chuckled.
"Highly unethical, some of the things you've said toyourself," Ellen
admonished.
"Let's get back to the subject," Ian interrupted, trying to regain control of
the conversation. "As Stasz remindsus on every single jump, there is a
probability of disaster built into the Alpha-class spacecraft.
We've been lucky.One more successful jump and we could be home."
"Or one jump to Delta Sag, which is only seven light-years away," Shelley
replied. "We could check out thevicinity, and then head for home. It will only
add a monthand a half to the journey."
Ian realized that they were merely voicing the argu-ment that he'd wrestled
with all day. Joshua had shakenhim up. He had never expected something quite
so chill- ing. But he was curious, as well. He had never orbitedanother star.
Not surprising he'd hardly ever been off-campus. They would in fact be the
first survey vessel everto orbit the Delta Sag binary. And since a number
ofcolony vessels had headed in this direction, there was thepossibility that
they might find something.
"Come on, Ian," Shelley said softly. "Let's do it."
Ellen gave him a nudge and offered the flask.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
"But you're almost out of forms," Ian said jokingly.
"I'll improvise. Hell, Ian, you've made my career onthis journey. I never
thought it possible that I'd ever profitfrom knowing you."
"Say, Ian, when she gets rich and famous, we shouldgo to some conference and
pass the word about what C.C.means."
Ellen turned with a roundhouse punch, and Richard jerked aside, just barely
Page 59
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
missed losing his teeth. As
Rich-ard ducked, Ian was able to observe the absurd effects created by trying
to punch someone in zero
G.
It took Shelley several minutes to subdue Ellen and pull her out of the room.
"Not nice, Richard," Ian said admonishingly.
"But it was fun."
Knowing that the intercom line was hot, Ian didn'treply immediately. After
thinking their situation over for a few minutes, he said, "All right, Stasz,
punch us up forDelta Sag. But this time I think I'll stay back here withthe
flask and ride it out."
And when the drive finally kicked in with a vision-blurring jolt, Ian could
barely tell if it was the gin or distortion that caused him to black out.
When the detection alarm kicked in, Ian and Shelleywere hunched over the
display board examining some of the records from
Unit 287
. For two weeks they had spent every waking moment checking out the video
recordingsand the historical data stored aboard the vessel. Ian wasstill in a
state near shock over the library, where he had discovered thousands of works
believed to have been lostin the Holocaust
War.
The names of authors whose works were till now un-known scrolled across the
catalog display, and Ian mut-tered with frustration when he tried to decide
which to examine first.
"Look at these," Ian had cried. "The discovery of justone of these books would
have been worthy of note, and we've found thousands. It will revolutionize our
under-standing of pre-Holocaust literature."
Shelley hung over his shoulder and watched as thenames and works flashed
across the screen.
"Who was this Mailer?" she asked.
"Someone obscure, I've read that his works are noth-ing but worthless
mutterings."
"Then if that's the case, with our memory filled tocapacity, shouldn't we dump
him? I mean, Richard, Stasz,and Ellen are all howling for memory space."
"Yeah, maybe you're right," Ian replied, and he pushedthe erase button to make
room for something of morevalue.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
"What about this Akhmedov? I never heard of himeither."
"Good heavens, girl, and you my grad-ass ahh, I meanassistant. I should have
you go back and reread yourtexts." And it was at that moment that the alarm
kickedin.
Stasz quickly hit the override and within minutes theyhad gathered forward to
see what was to come.
"No beacon functioning on this one," Stasz reportedto the assembled crew, "but
it's the biggest I've ever seen.Her mass triggered the alarm. She's only about
fivehundred A.U. off our main course, heading for
Delta Sag.Should we jump down and check it out?"
Ian looked around and shrugged his shoulders. "Whatthe hell?" he murmured. And
turning, he went back tothe computer board aft to ride out the velocity shifts
and the gut-popping downshift to sublight.
"So that explains the mass," Stasz said. "There're two of them riding
together."
They were on final approach, and the confusing shapeof what appeared to be a
triple torus mated to a
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pldoc.pisz.plpdf.pisz.plalternate.pev.pl
|
|
|
