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third time.
'Maybe they don't use that code any more,' Yalson said. She watched the screen
with her sharp-
browed eyes. She had cropped her hair back to about a centimetre over her
skull, hardly thicker than the down which covered her body. The menacing
effect jarred with the smallness of her head sticking out from the large neck
of the suit.
'It's traditional; more of a ceremonial language than a code,' Horza said.
'They'll know it if they hear it.'
'You're sure we're beaming it at the right place?'
'Yes,' Horza said, trying to remain calm. They had been in orbit for less than
half an hour, stationary above the continent which held the buried tunnels of
the Command System. Almost the whole of the planet was covered in snow. Ice
locked the thousand-kilometre peninsula where the tunnel system lay fast into
the sea itself. Schar's World had entered another of its periodic ice ages
seven thousand years previously, and only in a relatively thin band around the
equator -
between the slightly wobbling planet's tropics - was there open ocean. It
showed as a steely grey belt around the world, occasionally visible through
whorls of storm clouds.
They were twenty-five thousand kilometres out from the planet's snow-crusted
surface, their communicator beaming down onto a circular area a few tens of
kilometres in diameter at a point midway between the two frozen arms of sea
which gave the peninsula a slight waist. That was where the entrance to the
tunnels lay; that was where the Changers lived. Horza knew he hadn't made a
mistake, but there was no answer.
There is death here, he kept thinking. A little of the planet's chill seemed
to creep along his bones.
'Nothing,' Wubslin said.
'Right,' Horza said, taking the manual controls into his gloved hands. 'We're
going in.'
The Clear Air Turbulence teased its warp fields out along the slight curve of
the planet's gravity well, carefully edging itself down the slope. Horza cut
the motors and let them return to their emergency-ready-only mode. They
shouldn't need them now, and would soon be unable to use them as the gravity
gradient increased.
The CAT fell with gradually increasing speed towards the planet, fusion motors
at the ready.
Horza watched displays on the screens until he was satisfied they were on
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course; then, with the planet seeming to turn a little beneath the craft, he
unstrapped and went back to the mess.
Aviger, Neisin and Dorolow sat in their suits, strapped into the mess-room
seats. Perosteck
Balveda was also strapped in; she wore a thick jacket and matching trousers.
Her head was exposed above the soft ruff of a white shirt. The bulky fabric
jacket was fastened up to her throat. She had warm boots on, and a pair of
hide gloves lay on the table in front of her. The jacket even had a little
hood, which hung down her back. Horza wasn't sure whether Balveda had chosen
this soft, useless image of a space suit to make a point to him, or
unconsciously, out of fear and a need for security.
Unaha-Closp sat in a chair, strapped against its back, pointing straight up at
the ceiling. 'I
trust', it said, 'we're not going to have the same sort of flying-circus job
we had to endure the last time you flew this heap of debris.' Horza ignored
it.
'We haven't had any word from Mr Adequate, so it looks like we're all going
down,' he said.
'When we get there, I'll go in by myself to check things out. When I come
back, we'll decide what we're going to do.'
'That is, you'll decide - ' began the drone.
'What if you don't come back?' Aviger said. The drone made a hissing noise but
went quiet.
Horza looked at the toy-like figure of the old man in his suit.
'I'll come back, Aviger,' he said. 'I'm sure everybody at the base will be
fine. I'll get them to heat up some food for us.' He smiled, but knew it
wasn't especially convincing. 'Anyway,' he went on, 'in the unlikely event
there is anything wrong, I'll come straight back.'
'Well, this ship's our only way off the planet; remember that, Horza,' Aviger
said. His eyes looked frightened. Dorolow touched him on the arm of his suit.
'Trust in God,' Dorolow said. 'We'll be all right.' She looked at Horza.
'Won't we, Horza?'
Horza nodded. 'Yes. We'll be all right. We'll all be just fine.' He turned and
went back to the bridge. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]