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The creeper ran along the edge of the slide for several minutes while Pete and Harv continued talking. 'Indications are that you are about as near to the center of the slide as you can get. You're about three hundred feet back from the nearest edge, and maybe about forty-five feet down, give or take a couple of feet in any direction. When the equipment gets here I'll be able to locate you closer with the portable spy-ray. Is the satellite up yet?' Pete said. Page 114 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html 'Yes,' answered the creeper. 'Show them our view of the slide, and tell them to hurry it up,' Pete said. 'Copernicus Control wants to talk to you,' said the creeper. 'OK. Put them on,' Pete said. 'We were listening to you when you placed Harv's location in the slide. It looks like you just have to cut through to him and drag him out,' said Copernicus Control. 'Not quite. We lucked out in that he isn't at the bottom of the slide, but it still isn't quite that simple. I'll talk technique when I have some equipment to work with. Is the equipment on its way yet?' Pete asked. 'No, you've got another two hours before the entrance is cleared,' answered Copernicus Control. 'Then there's not much I can do except to survey the slide on foot, and try to figure out how we're going in after Harv,' Pete said. 'We'll call back when the entrance is open,' Copernicus Control said and signed off. During the following hours Pete explored the slide and the area where the slide started. He saw nothing except a jumble of rock. Copernicus Control called to announce that the equipment was on its way. Pete estimated cutting times, equipment placement, talked to Harv and slept. * * * It took the work party a day of steady traveling to get to the blocked, western entrance. It was located within a thousand yards of the slot being cut around Copernicus. The work party had bypassed the northmost entrance for this one nearer the city. Tractor beam projectors on trailers were anchored in place. In a few minutes they were being used to move the debris out of the entrance. As soon as access was obtained, men with cutters were removing the battered metal of the airlock. Both the inner and outer doors had been damaged beyond any possible Page 115 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html repairs. The impact of the secondary meteorites had been so violent that the surface sheets of metal were bent outward in the direction the rocks had come from, typical of hypersonic impact. Rocks were removed from inside the airlock. Then the inner doors and damaged facilities behind the airlock were removed. The airless tunnel was now open to the slot, where more debris and a cave-in was removed. Ahead was an airtight door which had been modified into a second airlock on the other side of the slot. This second airlock would now become the main airlock of this tunnel. There had been no real danger to Copernicus. Airtight doors were located about every thousand feet in the tunnel. They closed automatically at any drop of pressure. Waiting in the tunnel beyond the damage was a moon-car, a wheeled vehicle built to step over obstacles. It looked like a tincan with two pairs of tandem wheels supporting each side. Each pair of wheels, one behind the other, was connected to a short beam. The beam was pivoted to the side of the vehicle so the entire wheel unit could rotate through a complete circle. At the moment each wheel unit was partially rotated so only four wheels of the eight were touching the ground, giving the impression of the mooncar being up on tiptoe. Two men left the work crew and climbed the short ladder to the airlock in the rear of the vehicle. A few minutes later one of the men returned to the work crew. Inside the other had disconnected file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/E....iam%20B.%20%20Ellern%20-%20New% 20Lensman.txt (39 of 80) [10/15/2004 2:31:41 PM] ----------------------- Page 40----------------------- file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/E.%20E.%20Doc%20Smith%20-%20William% 20B.%20%20Ellern%20-%20New%20Lensman.txt Page 116 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html the electronic brain controlling communications and had the driver at gun point. As soon as the way was clear, the mooncar with its trailers moved out and started on the Northwest Trail, out toward the crater Mayer. About 40 miles along the trail the mooncar stopped to 'check the trailers'. No one noticed the body dumped into a small crater and covered with rocks. The new driver continued on his way. 'What happened to your buddy?' the foreman asked the man who had remained behind. 'Oh, he's around somewhere,' the man said, shrugged, and nodded toward the cleared entrance to Copernicus. 'Do you mind if I go back in?' 'Sure. We're about done here. A transporter will be going into Copernicus in about 15 minutes. The next crew can take care of the other entrances.' * * * 'The single, most critical point of attack in Copernicus is the travel tunnel system,' Rog Philips said. He and Larry stood at the entrance to a metal vault watching a group of men work on an enormous Bergenholm inertia-neutralizing generator. 'It represents a danger to the city even under normal circumstances. The travel tunnels lie underneath the whole city. They're surrounded by 100,000 cubic yards of plastic and metal, the tunnel liner, which is held inertialess. You can imagine what would happen if suddenly that material's original inertia were restored and it took off upward at 30 miles per second. The travel tunnels would slice through Copernicus like a razor- sharp cutter slicing a potato into french fries.' 'We've taken extensive precautions to minimize the danger. There are three Bergenholms producing the state of inertialessness. Each is capable of maintaining the whole system alone. Each uses Page 117 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html city power but also has its own auxiliary power source. Each is in a different location, widely separated from the others. Each is installed in a double locked time vault, one of the keys to which is normally only in the possession of the Directors of Maintenance, Security, and the Mayor. Each vault faces a different direction, away from the city. Griffin's men have gained entry to each of the vaults for "routine maintenance". I've concentrated the efforts of my repair crew on this unit. It has been completely checked out. Mike,' Rog called the foreman of the crew over. 'Mike, will you tell Lt. McQueen what you found.' 'Yes,' Mike said. 'We found an explosive bolt installed in a critical assembly of the Bergenholm, and explosive mixed with the fuel of the auxiliary power supply. The explosive bolt could be exploded at any time by sending the proper signal over the power lines. The auxiliary power supply would have been destroyed within a few minutes any time it was used. We're ready to close the vault and start on the next one.' 'Go ahead,' Rog Philips said. The inner vault door was closed. The first key locking it was removed. A minute later the green radiance of a wall shield covered the door. Then the outer doors were closed and the second key locking them removed. 'When the outer door is opened, the wall shield goes down for one minute,' Rog Philips explained. 'After that it goes down for one minute each hour. The wall shield is capable of withstanding any known portable weapon and we've changed locks so there's no chance of Griffin or any of his people getting in. Larry looked around the large room completely surrounding the vault so it could be inspected from all sides except the bottom. He noticed television cameras on the walls but Page 118 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html didn't comment on [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |