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rotated back. But we went. By that point anybody who'd freeze had already been
pressured or threatened out. We did it then. This will be no different."
"Maybe. I was nineteen real at the time and I thought I was immortal and,
after that full course, some kind of superman as well. I'm a lot
older now, and I've been shot up a lot of times and scraped up a
few more."
"Well, I'm nearly fifty real, and I believe I could do that course again. I
have yet to be defeated by
Doctor Soco-lov's simulator program, and I see nothing so far that would
suggest that this is not doable. I would agree that the odds are almost nil
that we will all survive, and slim that any, let alone most, of us will make
it back to be picked up. But I don't see anything here that skews the odds any
worse than the Ranger examination course."
Harker sighed. "Colonel, I had an electronic direction finder, I had a small
sidearm, a medikit, and a few other things when I did my exam. No matter what
you say, I know you had similar as well. I'd
love to try the Doc's sim, but it's only a guess. Nobody's come back from
being down there."
"The Dutchman has people who have managed the trip, or so he says. It is not
easy, but if it can be done by pirates, then it can be done by me." He paused.
"I do wish that you could try the sim at a high level, if only for me to judge
how out of practice you might be, but there will not be time. We are to board
the corvette in just over three hours. Since there is a great deal of risk
simply activating a gate let alone coming in-system near Titans, this will be
the start of it. Hector first, then, if it's all there, we go down and the
rest remain on Hector. You are in, or you remain right here. You have one hour
to decide. After that, there will not be time to allow for your supplies."
"An hour!"
"I think you would be most useful to us, Mister Harker," the Colonel said
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quite smugly. "And I
think having come this far uninvited, you could not resist going the rest of
the way. Not someone with your service record and awards."
Harker didn't have to think too hard on this part. "I'll go, at least as far
as the moon, just to see what the hell this is all really about. But going
down there, on a Titan world that won't promise."
I
"Fair enough. Oh you really should stop by supplies and get yourself a decent
pair of pants. In fact, I've already arranged for an entire kit to be prepared
in your size. Just pick it up and sign for it."
He was certainly predictable, anyway, Harker thought, as he got and
checked through the kit.
There were two complete outfits in there, each with the same nondescript black
pullovers that the priest, the colonel, and the colonel's long-time partner
and aide fancied aboard. In fact, when he answered the page to go to
the lower docking bay, he found that it was the uniform of the day.
He was surprised to see that they'd brought his suit down as well. It looked
the worse for wear on the outside; the smooth gloss was off it, and it had
some minor fading and beading that made it seem less awesome and more
seedy, but he knew it was still in top shape inside.
"We think the suit will be quite handy," the colonel told him, seeing his
surprise. "Not on the surface of Helena, of course, but on Hector. The same
low power modes that allowed it to stick undetected by us to the outer
hull of the
Odysseus should be sufficient for work there without drawing an
unwelcome crowd, or so this Dutchman says."
"Anything on him yet? Anything other than what we already knew?" Harker asked.
"Nothing. Every transfer's been by computer and ro-botics. It's
almost like he really is his namesake. A cursed captain who cannot be in
the company of humans, served by a ghost crew."
"Surely he's coming with us!"
"I don't think so," Father Chicanis answered. "I think he's staying
right where he is. What he needs is in the computer navigational and
piloting system on the cor-vette. He's not going to risk his own neck. Not
when he can get us to risk ours."
One by one they gathered there. Only Madame Soto-ropolis and Captain Stavros
would remain aboard the
Odysseus for this leg. Neither could offer anything more to the expedition
than they had by financing and assem-bling it.
"I should love to see my beautiful Helena one more time," the old
diva said wistfully. "But I
would be as a stone to the expedition, and I would be dead in an instant if [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]