"Richard Allen Stotts - Empire 1 - Midshipman" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stotts Richard Allen)

seem impossible. It was a remarkable gift that his father
put to good and practical use.


The cargo shuttle that Daniel piloted was well worn
but well maintained, it looked like a giant insect with itтАЩs
small command module and powerful drive unit.
Underneath was an assortment of powered clamps and
grappling devices for moving both the standard cargo
containers and any odd shaped bits of commerce that came
to hand. Outsized landing struts extended forty feet (when
fully deployed) to accommodate bulky items. At twenty




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standard tons unladed it flew like a pregnant whale in the
hands of a skilled pilot, Daniel could make it fly like a
hummingbird. The craft was not designed for high speed
atmospheric flight, it had to slow to subsonic before entering
a planetтАЩs air, itтАЩs cargo was exposed to the elements and
had to be treated gently.


Daniel had just deposited one of six ore crawlers that
had been consigned to the New Albion mining consortium.
Time was money, so the boy had just waved to the ground
crew and then made a quick departure. Dinner would be
waiting at the end of this trip, or rather it wouldnтАЩt be waiting
if he didnтАЩt keep to his time schedule. Mother took a dim
view of tardy offspring. The cargo shuttle had just cleared
the planetтАЩs atmosphere and was accelerating to orbital
speed when Daniel picked up the distress signal from one
of HMS RapierтАЩs landing craft.


Orbiting trash and junk were the bane of undeveloped
colonies, it cost a good deal of money to sweep unwanted
objects from their various orbits. Collisions with orbiting
junk could be minor or catastrophic depending on closing
speeds and the size of the junk. RapierтАЩs sleek landing
craft had merged orbits with a six ounce locking pin,




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collision speed was relatively low, only about six-thousand
feet per second. The wayward locking pin entered the