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breathing tubes. Rick took Teal by the shoulders. "What did he tell you?"
She stared at him blankly for a moment, then said, "The Invid. They must
have been using Praxis for experiments of some sort. It was the chambers they
hollowed out that gave birth to those creatures. And these same chambers have
ushered in this world's demise."
"But what kind of experiments?" Rick demanded. "What were they trying to
create?"
Teal shook her head.
Tight-lipped, Rick released her and motioned a radioman over to him.
"Any word from the Beta?" he asked Vince when the GMU link was established.
"They've reached the module," Vince updated. "But we're not getting
through to them."
Rick summarized what had gone down in the caverns. "I want to speak with
Tesla as soon as they call in. He must know something about all this-these
pits. Maybe there's a way to reverse it?"
"Unlikely," Vince responded. "But I'm sure Tesla will tell us what he
knows. He's practically one of us now."
With a little help from the GMU's computers, the Alpha was back on
course. Wolff and his Haydonite copilot were I at a loss to explain the
unexpected separation, but they assumed Janice had done so with some good
purpose in mind, and that her radio silence was nothing more than a glitch in
the system. It didn't occur to either of them that there was conspiracy afoot.
Wolff continued in this hopeful vein, even after he had learned that the
Beta had apparently made a successful docking with the drive module. That
singed piece of orbiting space debris was above him now, and he was getting
all he could from the Alpha to make up for lost time. It was only when his
radio requests for docking coordinates were ignored that he began to suspect
foul play. The hunch became full-fledged concern when he couldn't get the
Alpha's onboard systems to interface with the module. Consequently, the
docking-bay shields remained closed, and unless something could be done to
open them, the Alpha was going to wind up dead in space.
Even if that meant going extravehicular.
Sarna took over the controls while Wolff suited up. Praxis turned below
them like a cataracted eye. The telepath strapped in, bringing the Alpha as
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close as she could to the module's scarred hull; then Wolff blew the canopy.
He floated up and out of the VT on a tether line, took hold of the side of the
pinwheeling ship, and tried to center his attention on the alien external
control panel. Sarna spoke to him through the helmet relays, avoiding the net
in favor of frequencies of a cerebral sort. Wolff heard her thoughts as spoken
words as he fumbled with Spherian switches designed for hands more sensitive
than his own.
But a short while later the hatch was sliding open and pocketing itself
in the crystalline hull. Sarna engaged the Alpha's attitude jets and began to
maneuver the ship to safety.
The Beta was inside, empty; and fortunately, Wolff decided, there was no
welcoming party there to greet them. Down on the hold floor now he armed
himself with a rifle and two handguns; Sarna had perfect recall of the
module's corridor and compartment layout, so she led the way. They were barely
out of the docking area when the ship lurched.
"We're leaving orbit," Sarna told him.
Wolff felt the rumble of the module's drives ladder its way up his legs.
Sarna hovered along the corridor at an increased pace, then abruptly
right-angled herself into a large cabinspace and told Wolff strap himself into
one of the seats.
Wolff regarded the acceleration couch and threw her a questioning look.
"We're preparing to fold," she told him.
"They've what!"
"They folded," Vince Grant repeated. "The module's gone."
Rick leaned against one of the GMU command-center consoles to catch his
breath. He had run all the way from the cave only to hear the bad news as soon
as he came through the hatch.
"But, but, did they-"
"Not one word," Jean cut in. "The last message we had was from Wolff. He
was sure something had happened to Janice."
"Tesla," Rick said, biting out the name.
Vince nodded. "That's my guess."
"But where's the Alpha now?" Rick added, looking back and forth between
the two of them.
Jean pushed herself back from the console, her hands on the arms of the
chair. "That's the weird part. The Alpha made it aboard."
Rick fell silent; it felt for a moment as though they were speaking to
him in a foreign tongue. He shook his head, hoping everything would settle
into some sort of order. "Maybe it wasn't Tesla. Maybe Janice knows something
we don't..."
"Okay," Vince said.
"And maybe she managed to get word to Wolff, but he couldn't reach
us..."
"Okay, again."
"And maybe they had to fold because they realized there was no way to
get everyone offworld using the VTs..."
"Uh huh." Vince folded his arms. "So they take off for Karbarra or
Tirol, figuring we'll be able to wait it out."
Rick left it unanswered. There was no need, anyway, now that the tremors
had recommenced. A steady, thunderous roar filtered into the room; somewhere
nearby, mountain ranges were beginning to crumble.
It was a short jump. Wolff could feel himself coming out of the fold's
dizzying effects, and was on his feet even before Sarna had furnished him with
an all-clear sign.
When the two of them burst onto the module's bridge, they found Tesla
and Burak seated at the controls. Janice was off to one side, asleep, Wolff [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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