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Ulan the ice to be knocked free by any more temblors
 it was a dirt-compared-to-rock situation, really wouldn't hit her here. She
examined the tunnel walls carefully with her hand light. Even Titanian outdoor
light below the smog was ten stops or so darker than a sunlit Earth landscape.
"I can't see anything," she said at last. "The walls aren't perfectly smooth,
but the only grooves I can see are along them. I must have made them myself
with the digger."
"You should resume digging," said Status calmly.
"No you don't!" Belvew almost screamed. Maria frowned silently for a moment.
"Sorry, Gene," she said. "We need the new station." "Not the way we need live
brains!"
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"I think it's safe enough."
"How safe is safe enough oh." The man fell silent as a certain landing
incident flashed into his conscious memory. The commander gave no answer, and
n o one else was rude enough to comment. She started back down the tunnel.
"You wouldn't have let me do it." Gene's voice was much quieter.
"You don't know 'that." Maria resumed work with the chipper. "Nehemiah Scudd
er, if you've included
Heinlein among your classic readings, didnt know the earth was made in six
days."
'
Belvew omitted the "he just believed it" part of the rather trite remark;
there was no point in either being grossly insulting or leaving himself open
to a devastating retort about his own adolescence. Maria probably wouldn't
have made one, but still .. .
The rest of the group must be listening, after all.
"I'll be there in about ten minutes," Ginger interjected tactfully. "I'm
letting down now. Status, does the absolute direction of the can lines matter?
You said to make them at right angles to each other, but
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"No. Even the right angle needn't be exact," was the answer. "In any case, the
absolute orientation will be found when we calibrate them. You can drop the
first line on your initial pass over the crater."
"Only if you tell me when I'm at the right distance. I know I'm heading right,
but I can't see far enough ahead to spot the crater from fifty K's out."
"I can take care of that," came Martucci's voice. "I have your position and
vector through one of the relays the station is below your horizon. Tell me
when you're down to drop height."
"Five more seconds," the pilot answered promptly.
"Then cut to sowing speed right now, or you'll overshoot."
"Right." Both speakers were physically in the station, of course; it would
have been easier to let Pete take over the jet directly had he been competent
to fly it. No one mentioned this.
"You start to drop in six minutes from now. Remember the wide gap on these
lines; is your intervalometer reset?"
"It is now. Thanks. Maria, any more jolts?"
"Yes, but nothing to send me off the floor."
"And nothing to shear the tunnel?" asked Belvew.
There was a brief pause while the digger looked back along the bore. "Nothing
I can see inside. Ginger, can you see anything funny ahead? The sky looks
paler than a couple of minutes ago, at least the little bit I can see through
the entrance."
"Nothing shows from here. Not even the crater yet. The sky from here is the
usual orange-tan, or whatever you like to call it, with the usual cumulus
presumably about over the lake. Maybe you're seeing that."
"Maybe, though that shouldn't be the right direction. I can check that out
later. I'll dig until I have to rest again, or until there's some other reason
to go outside. Everything here seems solid enough, now that the mud I
plastered on the ceiling has all fallen back down. The real shocks seem to
have stopped, but there's a fairly steady continuing vibration."
"Keep an eye on the tunnel mouth," Gene suggested. "If the motion along that
fault reverses, you could
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spot." "Why should it do that? Do they ever?"
"Ask me again when I know why it's there at all I mean in detail; we already
know Titan can build mountains."
"And why should I worry? I have the digger with me, and there's only a few
meters of ice overhead."
"You can't go straight up. I doubt if you can slant up at twenty degrees. That
reads quite a few meters of new tunnel if you have to dig out. Think time, not
distance Commander."
"Right. Thanks. I have about twenty-four hours to go in this suit before
tapping emergency storage, and two after that."
"And that includes two or three to get up here, depending on when you start.
At least take your rest breaks outside." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]