"Bad Asteroid Night" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martinez Steve)

УTheyТre lost without your help, Trina. Hold still!Ф
УWhat are you doing?Ф She made a sudden grab, but came up with empty space. She panicked when she realized he had let go of her and moved away.
УRaki? What are you doing?Ф
УYouТll do the right thing. All you need is some time to think before they get to you.Ф
УRaki! Raki, donТt leave me! IТve got no thruster control! Raki!Ф
He was saying something, but his voice was too faded to make out. The IR channel was designed to fade with distance to simulate a normal speaking range, but with her radio circuits burned out it would be useless unless someone came near.
She tried all her com channels again, but calling out with no reply only increased her sense of panic. She was desperate to look behind her, but her view was cut off by the back of her helmet. She thrashed about till she was exhausted, trapped and smothering in a bag with her own heat and heavy breathing. Her heart rate monitor beeped an alarm, condensers whirred to reduce the humidity.
She felt like some stupid, gullible bug. Rakshasa had managed to absorb every bit of her angular momentum and now all her efforts canceled out. How could he do this to her? He must be some kind of fanatic. The way he spoke to her, as if it were all academic, while he strung her up and left her dangling on a wad of pure nothing.
As her useless anger drained away, she became sad that someone like that could just fall apart. Some kind of conceit, thatТs what it was. The more people treated him with contempt, the more deluded he became. He was probably never capable of true affection, she should have realized. Only now could she see how strangely impersonal was his interest in her, like some amazing, wonderful thingЧbut then he found a lot of things amazing, from insects adapted to weightlessness to robot algorithms. In his own mind, he must imagine she was up here meditating on the wisdom of his words, grieving for his martyrdom.
Just how crazy was he, then? That would be the issue when he went to trial. Assault. Reckless endangerment. Or would it be murder? What was he up to down there? She couldnТt help imagining horrible thingsЧeveryone dead, except for one madman preaching to his robots.
She curled up into a ball, and still she shivered. It was impossible to tell if she were falling down, heading for impact, or worse, had she reached escape velocity, to fall forever? Assuming the worst, then, her air would go before the heat. CO2 would build up, sheТd be gasping for air, like drowning but more prolonged. At some point, it would be better to crack the suit and get it over with. If it came to that, she could do it. At least she could give herself that one act of mercy, and somehow she found it calming to discover that she could let go so profoundly if she had to.
She began to consider alternatives. It wasnТt all hopeless. The others would look for her, and, not finding her, theyТd have to look up. If they were still there. If only she could signal.
She held out her gloved hand and aimed her headlight at it. She could see it plainly, but from a distance? What distance? She had no way to tell. She needed something more reflective.
She wanted most of all to turn around. But how could she acquire angular momentum with nothing to push against? Momentum must be conserved. She couldnТt violate a law of nature. On the other hand, she wasnТt just a lump of matter. There was no way to fix the thrusters, but maybe if she could puncture the tank, the escaping gas ... but she didnТt have a tool for that. Maybe there was something she could throw.
Then two thoughts connectedЧif she could crack her suit, escaping air should set her turning, and then sheТd have to hope she could close up before it was too late. It might work, but it was very dangerous. Where would be the best place to break the seal?
She became still again, alert to the nearness of an idea not quite present to her mind. Then it came to her and she unfolded herself, her legs together and straight while stretching her arms out to her sides like a dancer about to begin.
She picked out a star to be her point of reference. Then she twisted, her arms to the right, her legs to the left. Holding that twist, she brought her arms down against her sides and spread her legs open and untwisted, but this time the balance of moments was reversed, and her resting point had shifted. Not by much. It was hard to tell if she was cheating by the aim of her nose.
She did it again, and this time she was certain. Slowly, she managed to wobble her way around until she could see the asteroid down below, bigger than sheТd expected, as wide as her outstretched arms, and there, the floodlights, like a cheerful mini-Pleiades! She thought that she could see movement. In her excitement, she got her procedure backward a few times, but soon she was facing the compound. She turned her headlamp to full intensity and began flashing an SOS. There was no response. УCome on,Ф she said aloud. УLook up! Somebody look up!Ф
At last, she saw a light moving up to her, and then the captainТs voice came through. He seemed to be talking to himself, almost singing, УI know you canТt hear me, baby, but youТre alive, and that ainТt bad. YouТre gonna be all right. Gonna be all right. Come on and look at me, baby, give me five, give me five, you can do it do it do it, yes you can....Ф
Then she noticed he was flashing his light at her in chains of five. She flashed back and said, УI read you! I read you!Ф
УAll right! Love the sound of your voice. HowТs your vital signs?Ф
УIТm okay. ItТs all ... all okay.Ф
УOkay. Keep your light steady on, now. Clear the runway, IТm coming in.Ф
He was up to her within minutes, carefully checking the damage to her suit, taking readings, pausing to respond to people down below. She could hear the others now, second-hand. Her legs made impatient walking movements, then finally, slowly, he guided her down.
Her joy at returning among the living was tempered a bit by the little voices she could hear in the captainТs head, indistinct, but clearly excited, the sound of people taking up positions, moving in, then an unmistakable, УWeТve got him! WeТve got him!Ф
УOkay, hold your positions,Ф said the captain. УTry to...Ф
A tiny voice cut in. УHeТs not responding, captain. He may be unconscious.Ф
УI can see you now, but I canТt see him. WhatТs the situation there?Ф
Trina could see someone as well as they touched down. One crewmate about ten meters away, and another hovering, looking down at something she couldnТt see. She tried to make out what they were saying, but while they were talking, Anders was giving her instructions.
УYou stay here. Keep low, he may have improvised a weapon. DonТt try to get around without your thruster pack. IТll be right back.Ф
УOkay, okay,Ф she said, straining to pick up what the others were telling him. She had no intention of staying behind and losing her com link. She followed carefully, as if the ground might break. Ahead of her, all the commotion had raised a thin haze of dust that magnified every glance and gesture into an interplay of beams and shadows.
Apparently they had Rakshasa pinned down under a tangle of robots that looked oddly like horse-skulls with crab-legs sticking out. The other crew members wielded pipes and torches. By the time Trina caught up, some of the robots had been pulled off and tossed aside to float like dead things in some prehistoric sea. People were cursing. She could see now that the man under the robots had only two armsЧit was Fletcher. The haze was visibly thicker below waist level. As the captain got down on his knees and pressed his helmet against FletcherТs he blurred a bit, as if in a fog, and the empty space he left behind filled in slowly with the independent trajectories of random motes.
УAll right, tell me slowly, now.Ф The reply had that hollow sound that told Trina she was hearing something coming to the captain through no com channel at all, but purely by conduction through the helmet contact.
УIt cut me off, the first robot, it attacked me and cut all my com links and started dragging me. And then the others were all over me, the ones you sent after Rakshasa...Ф
Trina could see what theyТd been up to. The first robot, under RakshasaТs control, must have pinned his transponder on this poor guy. The captain spotted her. УI thought I...Ф He stood and came over to her. УWeТve lost Raki again. IТd sent Fletcher to secure the ship....Ф He whirled. УThe ship!Ф
The ship was decapitated. Off in the distance, the small speck of the command module was shrinking into the night.
The captain tried to raise it. УListen to me, Rakshasa, thereТs nowhere to run. YouТre just making things worse for yourself.Ф
Connors was trying to raise it, too. УGet back here you chicken-shit bastard freak!Ф and he hurled a chunk of pipe at it, flipping himself head-over-heels as he did. The pipe twirled hypnotically, so fast and far it seemed that it really could overtake the ship.
Trina yelled, УDonТt do this to us! YouТre killing me, too, Rakshasa! YouТre killing all of us! Damn you!Ф
УOkay, easy,Ф said the captain. УForget him. NobodyТs getting killed. Look, weТve still got the service module. WeТve got supplies. Kira, howТs the backup antenna?Ф
УHe got that one, too. And the omni.Ф
УOkay, you go check them out and give me a report, how soon to get them back on line. I want the fastest first, even if thatТs just the omni, and then go to work on the directional. Report to us back at base camp.Ф
He raised his voice. УListen up, everybody, weТre okay till help arrives. WeТve got liquid oxygen left in the tanks that we can convert to breathable air, and a working volatile processing plant. We can fix that airlock and pressurize the cave in one day. I want to see a line of sherpa robots moving supplies to the cave. This is a habitat, people, weТre moving in. LetТs go!Ф
He came over to Trina and guided her by the shoulders. УIТm not going to lose you this time. How do you figure that crazy bastard? You take it easy for now, and then IТm going to want to know what happened out there. DonТt worry, thereТs nowhere he can go. WeТre going to nail his ass, and then weТll nail whoeverТs behind him.Ф
Trina kept quiet as she let herself be guided back to the cave. It wasnТt hard to pretend to be too exhausted to talk. She just wanted to sleep, and forget, and have nothing to do with the mess Rakshasa had left behind. There was a path of least resistance she could take, that would get her off the hook and shift responsibility to official channels. But some part of her still seemed to be looking down from above.
As if clutching a pain, she brought her hand to the keypad and erased the rendering of the mass driver, and thought of what remained to be done, then felt foolish. What if Rakshasa was as crazy as he seemed?
Then she prayed into the nothingness. Please let there be refugees. Please be out there. And be good, dammit. Be worth all the trouble, at least.
Copyright й 2001 by Steve Martinez.