[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
We have most of the circuitry identified, but there is one particular trace that has us stumped.
Stumped?
An idiom. It means that we do not understand.
Sar-Say nodded. I do not know that I can help, but I will try.
Come over here, Laura called.
The Taff moved to the computer, where he anchored himself to Laura s belt and gazed over her shoulder
at the interior of the massive thinking machine.
Do you see this small trace here on this module?
It is very small, but I see it.
It seems to come out of the power module and run off into this crystalline thing. Any idea what it is for?
No, Laura. I have no knowledge of such things.
Could it be an interrupt line?
What is that?
Laura opened her mouth to explain, but was cut short by a quiet beep from her comm unit.
Get that, Mark!
Right. Mark stretched to where Laura Dresser had left her equipment belt. He
unsnapped the communicator and pressed the face to activate.
The call was from the communicator-on-duty. The captain wished to speak with the chief engineer. Laura
muttered something uncomplimentary under her breath, extricated herself from the computer, and pulled
the magnifier goggles down to dangle around her neck. She then restored her glasses to her face before
pulling herself to where she could reach the comm unit that Mark held at arm s length.
Yes, Tyler?
The captain wishes to speak to you, Madame Chief Engineer. Stand by.
Yes, Captain.
About those figures you sent me this morning &
Suddenly, a flash and crackling noise emanated from somewhere behind Laura Dresser. She pivoted her
body to look. At first, there was nothing to see. The open front of the computer case blocked her view
such that only Sar-Say s legs were visible. Then, while they watched in horror, the rest of his body
floated slowly into view.
The pseudo-simian was limp, his tongue lolled from his muzzle, and his yellow eyes stared sightlessly into
space. He looked dead.
CHAPTER 29
Captain Dan Landon sat at his control station aboard theRuptured Whale and let his eyes scan the banks
of instruments in front of him as he sipped lukewarm tea. The tea was heavily sugared (the way he liked
it), but a bit too strong for his taste. After six months in space, the autokitchen program should have
learned his tastes better than that.
His control station was the same basic setup he used aboardMagellan . It had multiple display screens
inset into a horseshoe-shaped console surrounding his high-backed command chair. The chair included a
lapboard with an imbedded touch screen that provided all of the fingertip controls he needed to monitor
every section of the ship. Though the instruments were the same as on the big starship, outwardly, they
looked completely different.
The instrumentation aboard theRuptured Whale , along with everything else, was part of a grand
masquerade. Despite the fact that the control station was a standard design for human starships, the
design of the console was such that it blended into the alien décor of the ship.
That was the way it had been with all of the human additions to the alien craft. Those that a casual visitor
(for instance, a Broan port official) might see were camouflaged to look like part of the ship s original
equipment, while those not easily camouflaged were hidden from view. The object had been to make the
ship operable by humans without advertising the extra-Broan origins of the equipment. Nor had the effort
to disguise the ship ended when they departed Luna. Ever since leaving the Solar System, the crew had
worked tirelessly to enhance the interior camouflage until Sar-Say proclaimed it would pass muster
anywhere in the Sovereignty. Landon hoped the pseudo-simian was right. They were betting the future of
the human race on his opinion.
The plan to masquerade as a species from a far-off part of Broan space was made possible by the fact
that (according to Sar-Say) there were no standardized layouts for Broan starships. Rather, the various
species used a few common hull designs, but customized them to fit their varying physiologies and needs.
A ship of Broan manufacture crewed by humans would be expected to be equipped with couches,
chairs, tables, and viewscreens that displayed pictures in wavelengths to which the human eye is sensitive.
In fact, had they tried to use the same furnishings and instruments as the previous owners, any aliens they
met might find the fact sufficiently odd to pass on to Those Who Ruled.
Therefore, the Whale now had two completely different propulsion systems - the Broan original and the
human add-ons. Since they could not be passed off as being of Broan manufacture, both space-drive and
stardrive generators had been installed in the capacious cargo hold, surrounded by heavy bulkheads, and
then hidden behind a façade of alien packing crates. If they did find one of the worlds of the Broan
Sovereignty, any port inspector who came aboard would discover nothing but a hold filled with general
merchandise.
Nor had the heavy equipment been the only additions to the ship s equipment. Also buried in the hold
were three of the most powerful computers humanity had ever built. They were attached to thousands of
sensors imbedded in the hull. While in a Broan star system, the Ruptured Whale would record more
signals than one of the fabled Soviet intelligence trawlers of the mid-20th century.
The Ruptured Whale had originally been designed to be spun about its axis to provide artificial gravity.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]