Pegasus In Space
- Автор: Маккефри Энн
- Серия: Talents #3
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «Pegasus In Space». Краткое содержание книги:
For an overpopulated Earth whose resources are strained to the breaking point, there is only one place to look for relief: straight up. With the successful completion of the Padrugoi Space Station, humanity has at last achieved its first large-scale permanent presence in space. But there are those who, for motives of their own, want Padrugoi to fail. Standing in their way are the Talented, men and women gifted with extraordinary mental powers that have made them as feared as they are respected--and utterly indispensable to the colonization effort. Now, as sabotage and attempted murder strike the Station, it's up to the Talented to save the day. Only who is going to save the Talented?
Pegasus in Space is the tale of Peter Reidinger, first Tower Prime!
"He and the rest of us," said Dirk Coetzer, swinging into the room, a bottle of champagne in each hand, his face reflecting the morning's glorious achievement. Shandin, Nicola, Madlyn, and Dash Sakai followed him into the office, all as euphoric as the admiral.
Let us not, in our euphoria, mention to Dirk anything about merging minds right now. And we have some good news for you, Lance, when we've a break in all this excitement. "Now, Dirk," Johnny went on, gesturing for Nicola to fill his glass to the brim, "this isn't something we can do on an everyday basis."
"You delivered the goods where they were needed most," and Dirk thumped Johnny on the back. Less vigorously but every bit as enthusiastically, he clapped Peter on the shoulder. "A toast, now everyone has a glass." He held his up. "First the Moon, now Mars." Everyone repeated the toast. "My God, I'm proud of you!"
"We're not unpleased ourselves," Johnny allowed, beaming as broadly as the admiral did.
In a flash, Peter reviewed what had begun as a simple wish to leave a hospital environment and be freed of his invalid restrictions. He had learned to kinetically manage a seemingly helpless body. He'd been able to send materiel and supplies to help complete Padrugoi. He had been at the Space Station's Inauguration and prevented a mutiny. He had learned to hack the black and help build the Andre Norton. He had reached out to the Moon and made First Base. There he had found that Callisto was the place for him to stand to 'port colony ships to the distant stars. Amariyah's gift had completed the healing process of his once useless body and he, who had never expected to be whole, had reached full manhood. How much further could he go now, with all the possibilities of the Gadriel tuning and mind-merge that he, Johnny, and Lance had discovered?
With a slightly possessive and very loverly arm about Ceara's shoulders, Peter lifted his glass.
"A man's reach must exceed his grasp," he said, grinning at everyone in the room.
EPILOGUE:
The bottles of champagne, carefully imported from Earth, were chilling in buckets full of Callisto's ice: undrinkable, of course, but capable of cooling wine.
The same cast of characters with a few important additions, Peter thought, glancing around those standing and sitting in the control Tower of the Federated Telepath and Teleport installation on Tithonus, now a satellite of Jupiter's tenth moon, Callisto. He was even getting accustomed to the great mottled orange Jovian bulk that was seldom missing from the thick wraparound windows.
Callisto Tower, as the Tithonus installation was called, was ready for this historic moment. Admiral Dirk Coetzer, silver-haired and bursting with pride, was seated at one console. He was to have the honor of issuing the command to the Tower team to begin the ISS Bradbury's historic teleportation to its destination, Capella.
For this great endeavor, Lance was tuning the great Tower's Gadriel generators, buried deep in the core of Tithonus. Peter could hear them singing in his favorite key, C major.
On one screen, former Commander Dash Sakai had the massive bulk of the Bradbury at her mooring off Padrugoi. On the other, he was getting the highest possible resolution on the visual of the M-5 planet in the Capella system. Madlyn, his wife of many years, sat beside him, beaming proudly at him.
Among the spectators specially invited for this occasion were Rhyssa and Dave Lehardt, though their teenage sons, Eoin and Chester, were beginning to fidget. Also present were Sascha and Tirla Roznine, Shandin Ross, the Admiral's longtime aide and telepath, and Nicola Nizukami, now a chief petty officer. To one side was Amariyah Bantam, chief hydroponics engineer and emergency medic, with an imperious tilt to her determined chin, at the fore of the rest of the Tower staff. More than half of the forty men and women had some psychic ability-Talent, Peter liked to call it, with a capital T! Only Dorotea Horvath and Professor Gadriel were missing from those whom Peter had assembled for this occasion. Peter smiled in sad remembrance of how proud Dorotea had been when he had placed Tithonus perfectly at its Lagrange point above Callisto.
"And now you have the right place to stand, don't you, Peter?" Dorotea had murmured for his ears alone.
Peter shook himself loose from the memories, and concentrated on the task to hand. Johnny Greene, in the informal AirForce blue coverall he preferred, occupied one of the three conformable couches. Sally, his wife, stood proudly beside him. On the second couch was Scott Gates, looking just a trifle nervous about his part in the imminent ceremony. Peter would occupy the third and now his wife, Ceara, smilingly beckoned for him to take his place.
The comunit bleeped.
"Callisto Tower, this is Captain Gale Johnson of the colony ship Bradbury, all systems are green for lift." The captain used the new term Peter had selected to replace "teleportation," a lengthy and somewhat daunting word.
"Very good, Captain Johnson," Admiral Coetzer said, nodding significantly to Peter who stretched out on the third couch. "Are you ready, Tower Prime?"
Peter took a deep breath, looked over at Johnny's wicked expression and Scott's rather apprehensive one.
"We are indeed, Admiral," he said, closing his eyes and "feeling" for the support of the other two minds. "Initiating the merge." He reached out for Johnny's mind, suddenly as professionally alert as Scott Gates's. "Admiral Coetzer, do the honors!"
"Bradbury, this is Callisto Tower, initiating lift."
The generators peaked, keening under the strain as Peter Reidinger, John Greene, and Scott Gates hurled the million-tonne ship out to the stars. Everyone inhaled sharply as the Bradbury disappeared from the Padrugoi screen.
"Well," Admiral Coetzer said with a tight smile. "That's that."
Johnny Greene looked sharply at him but it was Peter who spoke. "Admiral, I think we need to talk about our contract."
Dirk laughed. "It seems we're always talking contracts!" But he shook his head, pointing to the monitor showing where the Bradbury had been. "You've proven that you can send the Bradbury somewhere-but it'll be another forty years before even that pet SPOT of yours will see the light of that starship shining back from Capella."
Peter's eyes gleamed. "So you're saying, Admiral, that until we can prove that we have lifted the Bradbury the forty-five light years to Capella, we will have a hard time revising your contract with FT amp;T?"
Dirk Coetzer nodded. "I'm afraid so. I know you can do it but others are going to want to see proof."
"I told you so," Johnny muttered to himself smugly.
"Well, how about we step over here," Peter said, motioning the admiral toward Dash's monitors, "so we can discuss proof more objectively."
Dirk sighed. "Peter, I don't think there's much more to-" His eyes latched onto the telescope's image of Capella's M-5 planet. "What's that?" the admiral pointed to the glittering speck now visible.
"That's the Bradbury orbiting Capella," Dash Sakai said, somehow managing to keep his voice steady as if he were reporting no more than a normal arrival.
Dirk's jaw dropped and he turned first to Johnny, then to Peter, raising a finger accusingly. "You knew! You lifted it back in time. Why didn't you tell me? Do you know what that means? Do you know how this will speed up our explorations? How did you do it?"
It was Peter who answered him. "In order, yes, we did know-or at least we were pretty sure. We didn't tell you because we only had the one lift to Mars to go by and there was enough time between our lift and their getting those critical replacement units that it could have been a normal space translation. We know that without this sort of timely transportation and communication, all the colony worlds will be doomed to lag technically behind Earth-because it will take at least as many years as they are light-years distant for news and inventions to travel to them.