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Then again, if they couldn't see to aim their crossbows, maybe the camo wasn't
a total loss.
Festina turned to the rear of the transport bay and called up to the control
console, "Do you have the message to broadcast?"
"All recorded and stored in the ship-soul," Prope answered.
"And is the anchor in place on the ground?"
"Naturally," Lieutenant Harque said.
He and Prope were running the console themselves, rather than letting the
usual crew do anything. I told myself the captain was showing how cooperative
she could be, by giving us her personal attention. Still, I had to wonder if
Harque was really the best technician on the ship. While the others had been
suiting up, I'd watched him fumble with the control dials, trying to maneuver
a Sperm anchor down to the surface. I don't know if he made any real mistakes,
but he cursed a lot under his breath.
This particular anchor was the usual box with gold horseshoes, but it also
had a tiny flight engine attached and a whole bunch of stealth bafflers to
prevent people from noticing anything on radar. Not that we expected any radar
dishes had survived the Fasskister Swarm, but Explorershate taking chances. We
needed the anchor on the ground, right where we wanted to land, like a pin to
tack down the bottom end of the Sperm-tail. Without the little machine, the
tail would flap about as wild as a firehose and might throw us out anywhere
within a thousand-klick radius.
It would be really bad to get dumped into an ocean. Or in front of a big
hostile army. Or thirty thousand meters above the ground.
"So the anchor's in place?" Festina asked. "Did anyone down there notice it
landing?"
"Negative, Admiral," Harque answered, as smooth as if he'd never had a flick
of trouble putting the box in place. "Perfect insertion, in an alley within
twenty meters of the Explorers' signal source. The anchor's been there for ten
whole minutes and no one has come to investigate."
"So," Tobit muttered, "either the folks on the ground didn't see the anchor
go in, or they know exactly what's happening, and are waiting in ambush."
"Ever the optimist," Festina told him. Her voice had a metallic ring to it,
because she was speaking through her tightsuit transmitter. Since I didn't
have a tightsuit myself, I had a teeny receiver fastened into my ear glued
good and tight so it wouldn't fall out. I didn't have a transmitter, but I
wouldn't need one: the others could hear my normal voice just fine, as long as
I was within normal talking range... and we had absolutely no intention of
ever splitting up.
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"Are we ready?" Dade asked, far too brightly. This was his first trip
planet-down, and he was getting off lucky. Troyen might be at war, but it was
a lot friendlier than most places Explorers went. Mandasar warriors might
actually listen if you pleaded for your life.
"Ready as we'll ever be," Festina said, without sounding too happy about it.
"Start the sequence, Harque."
"Aye-aye, Admiral. Pressurizing now."
A weight pushed on my ears as Harque increased the air pressure around us.
Regulations said we had to have a higher pressure on our end than the
atmosphere we were heading for otherwise, the end of our Sperm-tail might suck
up stuff off the planet. The extra pressure would also give us a real strong
push into the Sperm-tail.
"Fully pressurized," Harque announced. "Anchor activated. Preparing to plant
tail."
I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Festina. "Get ready, Edward," she
whispered softly. "Harque is just the sort of asshole to eject us without
warning."
She nudged me to face the Aft Entry Mouth the big irising door that would
snap open any second now. When stuff started happening, it'd go really fast:
no countdown to ejection, just zoom, the instant our Sperm-tail was planted.
The tail would be glaringly obvious to anyone on the ground... a glittery
ribbon of colored sparkles, stretching into the sky. Ideally, it would only
stay put a few seconds, just long enough for us to hit the ground and switch
off the anchor. Then the tail would slither away wherever it liked, flicking [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
