"Peter W. Prellwitz - Book 02 - Shards" - читать интересную книгу автора (Prellwitz Peter W)

тАЬThe location is cross-planet, higher latitude. Total allowed mission time is twenty-two minutes.тАЭ
Several surprised looks at the longer than normal time. Thawell jerked a thumb at me. тАЬOur resident girl
genius has a couple of new tricks, so we get an extra six minutes. Use 'em right."

"Sergeant?тАЭ the pilot called back softly. The hov's drive was completely silent, and even a vehicle
equipped with a MacDonald phaser could travel almost without sound.

"Yeah, Gibbons?"

"We'll be slipping in three minutes. Phasing travel time is twenty-seven minutes."

Thawell looked back around at us. тАЬOkay. We'll use tri-team plan beta. Wyeth, you're non-activate
tonight, so Hacker, your tri-team is number one. Marks, you and Grominski gotta ghost. No ripe pickups
for you.тАЭ I was normally the anchor member of Company A's top tri-team, making me second in
command during the actual mission, but would stay behind tonight. It wasn't wise to let a sharded Cue
view unrescued ripes in riping facilities since it could cause a pretty wicked episode. It had been nearly
eight months since my last shard, but that wasn't long enough for me. Never again wouldn't be long
enough for me.

Thawell seated himself and buckled up. I had maybe two minutes left of full interface, so I did a final
check of the night's mission logic, running just under one million scenarios in ninety seconds.
Simulation result gave us a ninety-seven point nine percent chance of success with no casualties. Not
bad, but it could be better. Maybe if I tried adjusting the...

"Shut 'er down, Wyeth,тАЭ Thawell barked.

I shifted over to flat display, set voice interface to most sensitive, then settled back to await the phase.
The atmosphere grew warm and dry and brittle as the unit charged. I looked through the front portal.
The pilot, guided by unseen markers, reached over to a box. He lifted the box to reveal a switch, which
he rotated, then left his hand on. He waited a moment longer. Ahead, the desert flowed smoothly by.

"Phasing ... five ... four ... three ... two ... one.тАЭ He pressed the switch.

Everything became very hazy and translucent. I looked up at the top portal, not really wishing to see the
insides of the pilot and co-pilot. The night sky shimmered through the metal, an unnaturally breathtaking
sight. Then the pilot depressed the controls and we dipped into the desert sand, my stomach only slightly
behind the rest of me.


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Like a submarine diving into the sea, we sank into the earth. But where in a submarine you are only
surrounded by the elements, during phasing, you become part of the elements. Perfected about a century
ago, phasing shifted the molecular makeup of the phased object and allowed it to pass through solid
matter. The idea was not new-it had been the stuff of science fiction stories even in my old life. But now
it was science fact. What had not been anticipated was the difficulty in navigation. Nor was the visible
effect ever seen clearly, pun intended.

When phasing, everything became ephemeral and took on a translucent effect. The result was that you