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the instructions on the free fall toilet very carefully before he used it.
There were as many disaster stories about its use as there were about the
equivalent bit of sanitary engineering that was fitted into submarines.
Boredom very quickly replaced tension, since there was little to do other than
look at recordings or catch up on sleep. The space colony of Lagrange 5 was
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unluckily almost at its maximum distance from Earth, nearly 200,000 miles, so
the trip was a long one. While pretending to doze, Jan eavesdropped
shamelessly on his fellow spacemen. The colony was being used as a base for
the Space Force and headquarters for the Earth defense fleet, he discovered.
Most of the conversation seemed to be a mixture of rumor and gossip and he
memorized the best bits to be used as part of his cover.
He quickly discovered, when talking with the others, that most of them were
reservists who had never served in the regular Space Force before. This was
encouraging, since it would help to cover any omissions or slips on his part.
As it turned out these precautions were not necessary; Thurgood-Smythe had
planned his future quite precisely~ When they finally docked and disembarked
at Lagrange 5, Jan never even had the opportunity to see the interior of the
manufacturing colony. A
messenger was waiting in the spacelock chamber as they emerged.
"Technician Halliday," he shouted as the men floated by him. "Which one of you
is
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Tech Halliday?"
Jan hesitated just an instant before he kicked off in the man's direction. His
cover could not have been discovered; this development had to be part of
ThurgoodSmythe's complex planning. It was.
"Get suited up and leave your gear here, Halliday. It'll be waiting when you
get back. We got a scout going out and we're one tech short. You're the lucky
lad who's elected." He looked at the printout he held. "Commander name of
Captain Lastrup.
Ship's the Ida Peter Two Five Six. Let's go."
They used a jaxter, an open skeletal framework with six metal seats fixed to
it.
Other than this it was little more than four jets and a control pedestal. The
pilot was familiar with the little craft and kicked it away from the airlock,
flipped it end for end neatly, and was on a new trajectory even before their
turn was complete.
The fleet of Earth made an impressive sight. Grouped around the two
kilometer-long colony were scores of deep space vessels of all sizes. They
ranged from gigantic bulk carriers down to jaxters like the one they were in,
with a spectrum of sizes, shapes and functions in between. Their course took
them in an arc up over the fleet toward the shining needle of a scout ship.
The crew quarters in the bow was tiny in comparison to the engines and
auxiliary -fuel tanks to the rear. It bristled with antennas and detection
devices of all kinds. In space, beyond the fixed network of early warning
stations, it was ships like this that were the eyes and ears of the fleet. The
jaxter floated toward it, slowed and stopped with a quick flare of the bow
jet. The large characters of identification were painted across the bow,
IP-256, Page 245
Harrison, Harry - To the Stars Trilogy.txt just above the open door of the
spacelock. Jan unbuckled his safety belt, floated free of the seat, then
pushed off toward the ship. He dirfted gently into the lock, seized one of the
grabirons, and waved back to the jaxter pilot as he pressed the cycle button.
The outer port ground slowly shut.
When the pressure in the airlock equaled that in the ship, the inner lock
opened automatically. Jan cracked his helmet and floated inside. The circular
chamber, obviously the living quarters, couldn't have been more than three
meters across and just about as high. Around nine cubic meters of living space
for two men, Jan estimated. Wonderful. No expenses spared to make our boys in
space comfortable.
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A man's head appeared through a circular opening in the bow end of the room,
upside-down to Jan's orientation. A red face with slightly bulging eyes.
"Not accomplishing very much, are you, Tech, just floating around and
sightseeing."
This undoubtedly was Captain Lastrup. A fine spray of saliva exploded in Jan's
direction with every angry word. "Just peel out of that suit and get up here
on the double."
"Yes, sir," Jan said, obeying instructions.
Within two hours, after they had unlocked from their moorings and got under
way, Jan was beginning to dislike the Captain. By the time he was permitted to
retire, more than twenty hours after his arrival, he loathed the man. It was
painful, after only three hours sleep, to be dragged back to blurry
consciousness and summoned to the control room.
"I'm going to close my eyes for a bit, Tech Halliday, which means that you are
on watch. Don't touch anything or do anything because you are just a totally
incompetent reservist amateur. The machines will do all the things you are
incapable of doing. If there is a little red warning light or a little beeping
warning sound, you are to awaken me at once. Understood?"
"Yes, sir. But I am capable of monitoring the equipment because I know
"Did I ask for your opinion? Did I order you to talk? Anything you have to say
is just shit to me, mister. Understood? If you answer anything more than
yessir that will be disobeying orders, and that will go into the charges
against you. Now, what do you say?"
Jan was tired, getting angrier with every passing moment. He said nothing and
he enjoyed the red glow that suffused the officer's skin with every passing
silent second.
"I order you to speak!"
Jan slowly counted to five before he said "Yes, sir?'
It was very small revenge for the verbal abuse he was taking. But it was
enough for
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sore and grainy eyes.
Only the softest red glow illuminated the control room. Stars filled the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]