[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Who said one had to be the size of a person? There could be one sitting right
there on the shuttle dock airlock or even inside via the air vents and if they
zap a third creature out there they won t know it. They ll feel safe to come
in.
Hell, if it was already inside it would already Achmed, and would know
everything about internal operations anyway.
be
Damn it! How was she going to know if it was safe?
Page 41
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
I m gonna turn back to the old channel now, Cross s voice came out of
nowhere. They ain t got no fuckin
radios any more, not that would it useful. You okay in there, girl?
Sort of, Randi responded. Trouble is, that thing did a nice imitation of An
Li that almost had me fooled, so I
don t know who or what I m talking to now.
Good point. Look, check this first. Is there any way, did you give it any
way, to get inside other than through the air ducts?
No. Haven t touched a thing, I m sealed in here.
Okay, if you check you ll see that any breach of the air filtration would
cause a major alarm. Did that alarm go off? It shoulda been loud, and even if
it somehow got silenced, it should have lit up on the board in there.
She hadn t thought of that. No, no alarms. But you should know that, she
added suspiciously. Cross had duplicate controls in the cabin of the shuttle.
True, but you never can trust nothin anymore, can you? Look, I haven t
docked yet, so if this is me on the squawker then it s the real me, right?
Yeah, okay.
Put your palm on the plate and then instruct Emergency Gamma Two. The
computer will do the rest.
She looked over, put her hand on the flat identification plate, and said,
Emergency Gamma Two.
Switching to alternate emergency frequency, encryption level maximum, the
computer responded.
There. Still hear me? Cross asked her.
Yes.
Welcome to the club. Sorry we had to leave you in the dark, but we just
couldn t risk giving anything away and we wanted the fuckers to surface.
You shouldn t have left me like this! she almost shouted, feeling on the
edge of breaking. And it wasn t over yet.
Can t do much about the desertion. Didn t figure on this going so far, Cross
told her. Who d have thought the sons of bitches would be putting on and
using fully charged e-suits? And that big bastard, it s tryin to figure out
how to undermine our safe plateau, there, and we may have just accidentally
given it the general idea. If it doesn t take us easy, then them colonists had
to have some pretty powerful machinery to carve out that base from the cliff
in the first place, let alone move and construct that base. If we can melt
this cliffside, then it can surely figure a way to cut through the solid rock
holdin the base up. Just like us, though, it ll take a lot of time to get
that stuff powered up and over to where it can do much good. That means
keepin us here as long as possible. Hang on.
Queson could see the main board suddenly come alive. Cross was running some
kind of diagnostic, including one on the smelter.
Sweet Jesus! That goop s bout coverin
the damned thing! Son of a bitch! Cross swore. Lemme fry what I
can!
Nothing at all that seemed out of the ordinary was showing on the internal
cameras, but on the schematic on the main screen there were hundreds of
low-level fuzzy blotches. As Cross opened up on them, the cameras showed thin
layers of the living alien protoplasm or whatever it was peeling off like dead
skin and dropping, smoking, to the ground below. Some of it was trying to get
away, to flee the wide beam, but if there was any more of the stuff on the
thing then it was out of direct reach of the heat beam.
Shoulda thought of that earlier. Jerry came up with it just now, Cross told
her. Damned thing would have enough residual heat that it would provide a
rough and uncomfortable but potentially life-preserving ride. Spread itself so
thin and with such consistency that you couldn t even tell it was there on
visual!
Does that mean that Achmed ?
Page 42
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
That s the big question, ain t it? Depends on whether he kept everything
totally buttoned up and nothin came loose. The thing isn t pressurized and
uses basic air exchange unless it s outfitted for an alien mix, but it s tight
because of the insulation.
And all that means?
It means it beats the hell out of us.
Yeah, thanks. Back to square one.
There s no quiz you can give it now that it can t pass if it did get him,
she pointed out. We could have him go back out, but he could leave just a
small part of himself behind if he s now part of and it wouldn t do any
good.
it
Seeing him would tell us what else we have to deal with, Jerry Nagel put in,
taking one of the comm links.
They don t seem to have the ability to assume the color and texture of real
people, at least not yet. He thought for a moment. Listen, do you have an
e-suit in there? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl rafalstec.xlx.pl
Who said one had to be the size of a person? There could be one sitting right
there on the shuttle dock airlock or even inside via the air vents and if they
zap a third creature out there they won t know it. They ll feel safe to come
in.
Hell, if it was already inside it would already Achmed, and would know
everything about internal operations anyway.
be
Damn it! How was she going to know if it was safe?
Page 41
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
I m gonna turn back to the old channel now, Cross s voice came out of
nowhere. They ain t got no fuckin
radios any more, not that would it useful. You okay in there, girl?
Sort of, Randi responded. Trouble is, that thing did a nice imitation of An
Li that almost had me fooled, so I
don t know who or what I m talking to now.
Good point. Look, check this first. Is there any way, did you give it any
way, to get inside other than through the air ducts?
No. Haven t touched a thing, I m sealed in here.
Okay, if you check you ll see that any breach of the air filtration would
cause a major alarm. Did that alarm go off? It shoulda been loud, and even if
it somehow got silenced, it should have lit up on the board in there.
She hadn t thought of that. No, no alarms. But you should know that, she
added suspiciously. Cross had duplicate controls in the cabin of the shuttle.
True, but you never can trust nothin anymore, can you? Look, I haven t
docked yet, so if this is me on the squawker then it s the real me, right?
Yeah, okay.
Put your palm on the plate and then instruct Emergency Gamma Two. The
computer will do the rest.
She looked over, put her hand on the flat identification plate, and said,
Emergency Gamma Two.
Switching to alternate emergency frequency, encryption level maximum, the
computer responded.
There. Still hear me? Cross asked her.
Yes.
Welcome to the club. Sorry we had to leave you in the dark, but we just
couldn t risk giving anything away and we wanted the fuckers to surface.
You shouldn t have left me like this! she almost shouted, feeling on the
edge of breaking. And it wasn t over yet.
Can t do much about the desertion. Didn t figure on this going so far, Cross
told her. Who d have thought the sons of bitches would be putting on and
using fully charged e-suits? And that big bastard, it s tryin to figure out
how to undermine our safe plateau, there, and we may have just accidentally
given it the general idea. If it doesn t take us easy, then them colonists had
to have some pretty powerful machinery to carve out that base from the cliff
in the first place, let alone move and construct that base. If we can melt
this cliffside, then it can surely figure a way to cut through the solid rock
holdin the base up. Just like us, though, it ll take a lot of time to get
that stuff powered up and over to where it can do much good. That means
keepin us here as long as possible. Hang on.
Queson could see the main board suddenly come alive. Cross was running some
kind of diagnostic, including one on the smelter.
Sweet Jesus! That goop s bout coverin
the damned thing! Son of a bitch! Cross swore. Lemme fry what I
can!
Nothing at all that seemed out of the ordinary was showing on the internal
cameras, but on the schematic on the main screen there were hundreds of
low-level fuzzy blotches. As Cross opened up on them, the cameras showed thin
layers of the living alien protoplasm or whatever it was peeling off like dead
skin and dropping, smoking, to the ground below. Some of it was trying to get
away, to flee the wide beam, but if there was any more of the stuff on the
thing then it was out of direct reach of the heat beam.
Shoulda thought of that earlier. Jerry came up with it just now, Cross told
her. Damned thing would have enough residual heat that it would provide a
rough and uncomfortable but potentially life-preserving ride. Spread itself so
thin and with such consistency that you couldn t even tell it was there on
visual!
Does that mean that Achmed ?
Page 42
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
That s the big question, ain t it? Depends on whether he kept everything
totally buttoned up and nothin came loose. The thing isn t pressurized and
uses basic air exchange unless it s outfitted for an alien mix, but it s tight
because of the insulation.
And all that means?
It means it beats the hell out of us.
Yeah, thanks. Back to square one.
There s no quiz you can give it now that it can t pass if it did get him,
she pointed out. We could have him go back out, but he could leave just a
small part of himself behind if he s now part of and it wouldn t do any
good.
it
Seeing him would tell us what else we have to deal with, Jerry Nagel put in,
taking one of the comm links.
They don t seem to have the ability to assume the color and texture of real
people, at least not yet. He thought for a moment. Listen, do you have an
e-suit in there? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]