Brian Daley Coramonde 01 The Doomfarers of Coramonde (v4.2)
Brian Daley Coramonde 02 The Starfollowers of Coramonde v4.1 (htm)
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Damy z Bath Swan Susan
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Zapomnij ze mna tom 2 J.Lynn
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want to waste any time explaining, and I certainly didn't want to begin and
then discover that I didn't have an explanation. I was riding an impulse and I
wasn't about to let anything get in its way. I shoved him bodily along the
corridor into the engine room, and I started up the ladder to the control
room.
Once we had a nice, impersonal call-circuit in between us, I was willing to
exchange a few words. But strictly business.
"Now look, Sam," I said, when I was settled into the cradle. "Count me down
nice and easy. But when we let those cannons go we are going to go. Up and
away. I don't want any damned fool running out of the lock in a light suit and
getting blinded by our backburn. We haven't much area to spare on the ground.
I want a quick, tight lift OK?"
"Grainger," he said. "What are we doing?"
"Never mind the chatter," I said. "Start the countdown."
The countdown began. As we began to feed power into the piledriver we started
making noise. Not much, but enough to wake a light sleeper despite the
thinness of the air and the thickness of the dome. On a world like Darlow
people get used to silence, and anything that isn't is apt to disturb them. I
hoped no one would react until the cannons let go. Then the vibrations
transmitted through the ground would have them out of their beds in a hurry,
but by then it would be too late even to ask us what was going on.
The countdown went into the tens and nobody showed. I knew we were away,
then. At zero the cannons began to burn. The reaction in the thrust chamber
swelled quickly but smoothly, and we began to haul ourselves from the ground
almost immediately, riding the cushion of the blast. Impulse from the
discharge points flooded the deration system and the flux was urged into
action. Sam kept the syndrome under control-he didn't stifle it, but there was
never a chance of its running wild.
We lifted with majestic perfection.
Power surged through the nerve-net and brought my ship-self vibrantly alive.
I felt the span and the sweep of the wings.
We were clear of the atmosphere in no time at all.
"Countdown to tachyonic transfer," I said levelly.
"Check," said Sam, and began in the two-twenties. He was being
conservative-understandably. I didn't want him to rush. We had all the time in
the world now. There was nothing that could stop us. We were free and clear.
The call-circuit burped slightly, and I closed down the outside tap. I wanted
only the control-to-drive relay. The rest was spare. It was illegal to cut out
the circuit like that, but I'd already broken enough laws for a few more to
make no difference. Captains have authority, but not the kind of authority I'd
taken upon myself.
I felt the relaxation field growing. Sam was balancing it carefully, taking
no chances at all, feeling his way-getting into the engine properly and
wholeheartedly. He'd handled her before, on the way out from New Alex, but
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that was only a guest spot. This was for real. She was his baby now. He was
fusing his personality with her just as I fused mine with the whole being that
was the Hooded Swan.
I caressed the load gently, playing with the awesome power of the driver. The
relaxation field never drew tight The deration-plasm was in equilibrium every
inch of the way. Sam was brilliant, as I'd known he would be. He had got
himself right into the drive in a matter of moments, and I knew we weren't
going to wobble and have to take the approach a second time. We made a perfect
transfer, and I began to denature the mass swiftly, easing us into a nice
steady six thou. At that rate, it would only be a matter of minutes before I
had to take her back down and prepare for the run-up to the nebula.
We were right out of reach now.
Out of sight, though not out of mind. They would all be awake now, back at
the base, wondering what the hell was on. But we'd gone. All they had was a
blind guess.
"OK, Sam," I said, "rest easy. I'm going to loop us around the nebula. No
hurry. Just get the feel of things. There's all the time in the world. I'll [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
