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inserted into the portable screen console.
Whatever the results, they appeared satisfactory, from what Gerswin could see
from all the heads nodding.
Major Hylton, the tall officer directing the operation, led the first group into
the laser bore, less than two meters high.
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The technician nodded at Gerswin, and the two trooped with the second group,
just a few meters behind the major. Nearly half the party had to stoop.
After roughly eight meters, the tunnel veered to the left and broke into a dimly
lit space. One by one, the officers and technicians, and, finally, the former
devilkid, stepped through the-ragged opening into a larger passage ten meters
wide and more than five meters high.
Twin strips of glowing panels built flush into the ceiling lit the unadorned
passage, unless the light blue, fist-sized, square tiles which walled the sides of the
corridor could be considered decoration.
Looking to the left, Gerswin could see only a set of three meter high doors,
black metal finished and also apparently welded shut. There was no indication of
the giant gates which stood on the far side.
He turned back and looked at the corridor before the party. The passage sloped
downward gradually for another fifty meters to end in still another set of doors.
The massive endurasteel doors, each three meters high and two meters wide,
hung open, sitting intact on twin hinges each longer than Gerswin's arm.
The pilot sniffed. The air had but the slightest tinge of age to it, and Gerswin
could feel the hint of a breeze coming from the open doors.
"Why didn't they lock those as well?" asked Major Hylton. "Maybe they figured
anyone who could break the exterior bonds could break these as well."
"No time," muttered Gerswin, but the corridor was so silent that his low words
carried to the major, who turned to identify the speaker.
"That might be. Lieutenant. That might be."
The major glanced back at the sealed doors behind them and at the ragged
breach through the tiled wall.
"Darden, you and N'Bolgia stay here. Just in case," ordered the major.
In case of what, wondered Gerswin. Two people won't be able to stop those
doors if they're powered.
Despite his misgivings, he followed the major and the others through the
openings and into a square hallway, from which branched three other corridors.
The major took the right hand one, the one which had a red arrow pointing
again downward. That corridor ended abruptly less than a hundred meters
farther when it expanded into an archway which led to a semicircular hall. The
hall was filled with low, wide consoles arranged in arcs facing the circular section
of wall. On the, wall stretched a map of the Earth, continent by continent.
Gerswin frowned at the arbitrary markings within the continents, then relaxed
as he realized they represented not only the topography, but some sort of political
boundaries.
He searched and found the Noram boundaries and tried to compare them
mentally with what his current charts showed. The wall display was different. To
what degree he was uncertain, although some of the differences were obvious.
While the coastal areas seemed the same, off the western Noram coasts, where
the display showed ocean, there were also a series of lines enclosing "political"
boundaries, as if to indicate that the continent had extended farther once than it
now did.
Several moments passed as the group surveyed the room.
"Look!"
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Gerswin studied the map again, trying to figure out what he was to look for,
when he saw the blinking red dot slowly traversing from the lower left toward the
upper right.
He pulled at his chin. Something else about the wall map bothered him, not
just the moving dot, although he wondered about it as well.
His mouth dropped as it hit him all at once, and he wanted to pound his own
head for his slowness in understanding. The display was neither painted nor
embossed, not a static display, but a composite projection.
The display showed the actual terrain as it existed right at the moment. The
lines represented some sort of governmental or political boundaries dating back
to the time the projection had been developed. That was why the lines on the
western Noram coast were projected out over the ocean.
But what were the occasional lights on the map? Some seemed stationary while
others moved. Gerswin could see three red ones, two pale blue ones, and a green.
One of the red ones-stationary-seemed to match the position of orbit control.
"That's it!" he whispered, but his voice carried in the quiet.
"That's what. Lieutenant?" asked Major Hylton. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]