[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
missile hurled toward the dozer.
Crack!
The stone slapped against the cockpit armaglass, leaving only a streak of
dust.
A figure on the end of the line of shambletowners was reloading his sling with
another smooth stone.
Fynian, Gerswin thought, although the man was looking down and not directly at
the major.
Crack!
Glynnis shook her head.
"Really are out after us."
"Devilkids and Impies one and the same to them."
"We know different. Captain."
Gerswin smiled faintly. "For them, it's all the same." He looked back over his
right shoulder at the shambletowners, still standing in a line on the
embankment. "If we succeed, Glynnis, won't be the same for us, either."
"Take longer than I've got, Captain."
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Gerswin nodded slowly and settled back to watch the lieutenant as the causeway
rolled slowly by. He drank in the tall plains grasses that were beginning to
fill in the spots where nothing had grown, and glanced from checkerboard field
to checkerboard field where the organic sponge grains grew and would be
harvested again and again until the soil was ready for grasses or food crops
for people or livestock-not that there would be much livestock for a long time
to come if he and the ecologists had much to say about it.
How long before the land was ready? He shrugged. Mahmood's prediction had been
ten years after the first sponge grains and outcropping. So far, for the few
lands that had completed the process, Mahmood had been right.
He missed the idealistic ecologist, but who could blame him for retiring to
take the ecology chair at the college on Medina?
Time passed people by, slowly, ponderously, just as the dozer had passed the
shambletowners, but with the same kind of unstoppable force.
"You know your records still stand, Captain?"
Glynnis' words broke his reverie.
file:///F|/rah/L.%20E.%20Modesitt/Modesitt,%2...01%20-%20Dawn%20For%20A%20Dist
ant%20Earth.txt (93 of 144) [5/22/03 12:14:52 AM]
file:///F|/rah/L.%20E.%20Modesitt/Modesitt,%20L%20E%20-%20Forever%20Hero%2001%
20-%20Dawn%20For%20A%20Distant%20Earth.txt
"Records?"
"The ones you set for the Academy Ironman. Lerwin came within five minutes. No
one else has come within twenty, and they never will."
"Someday, someone will. Time passes."
The cockpit lit as the clouds let the sun break through, and Gerswin absorbed
the warmth momentarily before tapping the vent to bring in more cool air from
outside. Too much light and heat still bothered him.
"They say ice water runs in your veins,"
"Anti-ice, maybe."
Gerswin knew he was being distant, but he hoped she would understand.
Whether Glynnis did or not, the lieutenant said nothing else as the dozer
rumbled over the highest point on the trip and began the equally gentle
descent toward the town.
Gerswin relaxed as much as he could, and tried to enjoy the slow pace of the
trip, away from the base, from the constant flow of communications that
cluttered the Ops screens, all of which had to be monitored and evaluated
before Vierio had a chance to see it, much less act on it. With
Vierio off with the base commander for the three days ahead, Gerswin could
leave Lerwin to watch the screens and the day-to-day activities.
Anything really serious and Lerwin could reach him in seconds.
Gerswin watched as the town wall appeared ahead on the right. Before he knew
it the dozer was slowing, gradually, heavily, but certainly.
Chapter XLVI
"GroundOps, Dragon Two at destination. Beginning cargo drop this time."
"Stet. Understand cargo drop. Report when drop complete and proceeding to
station."
"Stet. Will report when proceeding to station."
Gerswin eased himself out of the operator's seat. He stood in the space behind
the two front seats as Glynnis and Nylen began to maneuver the dozer around to
place the materials drop section, where the fusactor sat, as close as possible
to the reinforced ferroplast slab.
"Twenty reverse on the right rear."
"Twenty right rear."
"Bring up the left a touch."
"Stet."
"Stress load on the ramp is point nine five and steady."
Page 122
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"Lieutenant, we've got it on the downslope and clear of the joints. Hold the
tracs."
"Locked and holding ..."
"... three more on the left ..."
"... right comer sticking . . . liquid slick it . . ."
"... clearing top section ..."
"... load factor on the ramp at point eight three and dropping ..."
". . . clear of the ramp, and in position."
"Understand clear of the ramp."
"That's affirmative. Lieutenant. You're clear to move forward."
Gerswin watched as Glynnis wiped her forehead with the back of her jumpsuit
sleeve.
"On the roll."
Hands flicking across the console, Glynnis eased the dozer away from the
uncompleted section of town wall and back down the incline onto the causeway,
bringing the dozer to a stop.
"That's done. Captain."
"Nicely," he commented with a smile.
"No . . . But we got it done. Sloppy on the trac balancing."
She pushed several stray red hairs off her forehead and squared herself in the
seat.
"You leaving now?"
"Don't want to go out on station while you plow up my favorite purple clay and
change it into old-fashioned dirt. Not now, anyway."
"Sure about that?"
"I'm sure."
"Have it your way. Captain." She flashed a smile. "See you in a week or so."
He nodded, then ducked down the passageway and out through the crew exit.
The other tech, Krysten, snapped a salute at him as he slipped outside and
landed lightly on the packed red clay.
After returning the salute, he walked back toward the uncompleted section of
the wall,
file:///F|/rah/L.%20E.%20Modesitt/Modesitt,%2...01%20-%20Dawn%20For%20A%20Dist
ant%20Earth.txt (94 of 144) [5/22/03 12:14:52 AM]
file:///F|/rah/L.%20E.%20Modesitt/Modesitt,%20L%20E%20-%20Forever%20Hero%2001%
20-%20Dawn%20For%20A%20Distant%20Earth.txt paralleling the half-meter deep
prints the dozer had left in the work ramp.
As he reached the spot where the fused clay wall had been left untouched, he
waved again at the dozer. Glynnis had already begun to inch Dragon Two forward
and toward the golden plains beyond, toward a destination out beyond the
golden green of the sponge grains, out over the horizon where the line of
dozers methodically extended the borders of arable land.
Even seventy meters away. Dragon Two still towered over the wall and Gerswin,
seemingly taller than either as it crept eastward.
In time, Gerswin turned and walked through the opening in the wall and past
the ferroplast foundation where teens were already beginning to erect the
remainder of the back-up power station around the fusactor. His feet took him
toward the central square of the town that had no name.
At first glance, the new town could have passed for an. updated and cleaner
version of the old shambletown, with white glazed finishes over thick walls of
fired bricks. But the streets, rather than narrow canyons, opened to the sky,
boulevards radiating from the square. The houses, neither individual nor
wall-to-wall, clustered in groups, standing in the midst of more open space
than any shambletowner would have ever dreamed, although none were taller than
two stories, and all possessed the thick walls. Instead of hide covers the
windows had double-paned armaglass for their still small apertures.
The streets were paved with gray stone slabs cut with lasers, and stone flower
boxes appeared at irregular intervals, filled with blue ice flowers and a
Page 123
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
yellow flower Gerswin did not recognize.
He passed an expanse of green turf, a park with several skeletal structures on
which two children clambered. The grassy space was surrounded on three sides [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl freetocraft.keep.pl
missile hurled toward the dozer.
Crack!
The stone slapped against the cockpit armaglass, leaving only a streak of
dust.
A figure on the end of the line of shambletowners was reloading his sling with
another smooth stone.
Fynian, Gerswin thought, although the man was looking down and not directly at
the major.
Crack!
Glynnis shook her head.
"Really are out after us."
"Devilkids and Impies one and the same to them."
"We know different. Captain."
Gerswin smiled faintly. "For them, it's all the same." He looked back over his
right shoulder at the shambletowners, still standing in a line on the
embankment. "If we succeed, Glynnis, won't be the same for us, either."
"Take longer than I've got, Captain."
Page 121
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Gerswin nodded slowly and settled back to watch the lieutenant as the causeway
rolled slowly by. He drank in the tall plains grasses that were beginning to
fill in the spots where nothing had grown, and glanced from checkerboard field
to checkerboard field where the organic sponge grains grew and would be
harvested again and again until the soil was ready for grasses or food crops
for people or livestock-not that there would be much livestock for a long time
to come if he and the ecologists had much to say about it.
How long before the land was ready? He shrugged. Mahmood's prediction had been
ten years after the first sponge grains and outcropping. So far, for the few
lands that had completed the process, Mahmood had been right.
He missed the idealistic ecologist, but who could blame him for retiring to
take the ecology chair at the college on Medina?
Time passed people by, slowly, ponderously, just as the dozer had passed the
shambletowners, but with the same kind of unstoppable force.
"You know your records still stand, Captain?"
Glynnis' words broke his reverie.
file:///F|/rah/L.%20E.%20Modesitt/Modesitt,%2...01%20-%20Dawn%20For%20A%20Dist
ant%20Earth.txt (93 of 144) [5/22/03 12:14:52 AM]
file:///F|/rah/L.%20E.%20Modesitt/Modesitt,%20L%20E%20-%20Forever%20Hero%2001%
20-%20Dawn%20For%20A%20Distant%20Earth.txt
"Records?"
"The ones you set for the Academy Ironman. Lerwin came within five minutes. No
one else has come within twenty, and they never will."
"Someday, someone will. Time passes."
The cockpit lit as the clouds let the sun break through, and Gerswin absorbed
the warmth momentarily before tapping the vent to bring in more cool air from
outside. Too much light and heat still bothered him.
"They say ice water runs in your veins,"
"Anti-ice, maybe."
Gerswin knew he was being distant, but he hoped she would understand.
Whether Glynnis did or not, the lieutenant said nothing else as the dozer
rumbled over the highest point on the trip and began the equally gentle
descent toward the town.
Gerswin relaxed as much as he could, and tried to enjoy the slow pace of the
trip, away from the base, from the constant flow of communications that
cluttered the Ops screens, all of which had to be monitored and evaluated
before Vierio had a chance to see it, much less act on it. With
Vierio off with the base commander for the three days ahead, Gerswin could
leave Lerwin to watch the screens and the day-to-day activities.
Anything really serious and Lerwin could reach him in seconds.
Gerswin watched as the town wall appeared ahead on the right. Before he knew
it the dozer was slowing, gradually, heavily, but certainly.
Chapter XLVI
"GroundOps, Dragon Two at destination. Beginning cargo drop this time."
"Stet. Understand cargo drop. Report when drop complete and proceeding to
station."
"Stet. Will report when proceeding to station."
Gerswin eased himself out of the operator's seat. He stood in the space behind
the two front seats as Glynnis and Nylen began to maneuver the dozer around to
place the materials drop section, where the fusactor sat, as close as possible
to the reinforced ferroplast slab.
"Twenty reverse on the right rear."
"Twenty right rear."
"Bring up the left a touch."
"Stet."
"Stress load on the ramp is point nine five and steady."
Page 122
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"Lieutenant, we've got it on the downslope and clear of the joints. Hold the
tracs."
"Locked and holding ..."
"... three more on the left ..."
"... right comer sticking . . . liquid slick it . . ."
"... clearing top section ..."
"... load factor on the ramp at point eight three and dropping ..."
". . . clear of the ramp, and in position."
"Understand clear of the ramp."
"That's affirmative. Lieutenant. You're clear to move forward."
Gerswin watched as Glynnis wiped her forehead with the back of her jumpsuit
sleeve.
"On the roll."
Hands flicking across the console, Glynnis eased the dozer away from the
uncompleted section of town wall and back down the incline onto the causeway,
bringing the dozer to a stop.
"That's done. Captain."
"Nicely," he commented with a smile.
"No . . . But we got it done. Sloppy on the trac balancing."
She pushed several stray red hairs off her forehead and squared herself in the
seat.
"You leaving now?"
"Don't want to go out on station while you plow up my favorite purple clay and
change it into old-fashioned dirt. Not now, anyway."
"Sure about that?"
"I'm sure."
"Have it your way. Captain." She flashed a smile. "See you in a week or so."
He nodded, then ducked down the passageway and out through the crew exit.
The other tech, Krysten, snapped a salute at him as he slipped outside and
landed lightly on the packed red clay.
After returning the salute, he walked back toward the uncompleted section of
the wall,
file:///F|/rah/L.%20E.%20Modesitt/Modesitt,%2...01%20-%20Dawn%20For%20A%20Dist
ant%20Earth.txt (94 of 144) [5/22/03 12:14:52 AM]
file:///F|/rah/L.%20E.%20Modesitt/Modesitt,%20L%20E%20-%20Forever%20Hero%2001%
20-%20Dawn%20For%20A%20Distant%20Earth.txt paralleling the half-meter deep
prints the dozer had left in the work ramp.
As he reached the spot where the fused clay wall had been left untouched, he
waved again at the dozer. Glynnis had already begun to inch Dragon Two forward
and toward the golden plains beyond, toward a destination out beyond the
golden green of the sponge grains, out over the horizon where the line of
dozers methodically extended the borders of arable land.
Even seventy meters away. Dragon Two still towered over the wall and Gerswin,
seemingly taller than either as it crept eastward.
In time, Gerswin turned and walked through the opening in the wall and past
the ferroplast foundation where teens were already beginning to erect the
remainder of the back-up power station around the fusactor. His feet took him
toward the central square of the town that had no name.
At first glance, the new town could have passed for an. updated and cleaner
version of the old shambletown, with white glazed finishes over thick walls of
fired bricks. But the streets, rather than narrow canyons, opened to the sky,
boulevards radiating from the square. The houses, neither individual nor
wall-to-wall, clustered in groups, standing in the midst of more open space
than any shambletowner would have ever dreamed, although none were taller than
two stories, and all possessed the thick walls. Instead of hide covers the
windows had double-paned armaglass for their still small apertures.
The streets were paved with gray stone slabs cut with lasers, and stone flower
boxes appeared at irregular intervals, filled with blue ice flowers and a
Page 123
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
yellow flower Gerswin did not recognize.
He passed an expanse of green turf, a park with several skeletal structures on
which two children clambered. The grassy space was surrounded on three sides [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]