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!
"But that's still a lot of mass to shift!"
"Okay, so we shift mass!"
"We?" Peter caught him up on the use of that pronoun with an ironic grin.
"Yeah, yeah, this time I'd be in the 'port, I promise you' " and Johnny crossed his heart. "But I proved to you that you could shift something all the way to the Moon, didn't I? So, we build on that. We use windows when the Moon's at perigee in respect to the Station."
"That only cuts it down about fifty thousand klicks," Peter was still skeptical.
"Every bit helps," Johnny blithely reminded him. "Or," and he pretended to submit a second option, "we could send lighter components. Reassembly's an option, you know. First Base has the technicians."
"Is Lance back up there?"
"No, but he could be," Johnny reassured him. "We could push and Lance could catch. No matter how little or how much we send on its way, First Base is that much further ahead. Look, it's put-up or shut-up time, Pete. Fuel's just gone up in cost and you know how much those guzzling freighters take to break loose from the Padrugoi orbit. Dirk's counting on you, too. If we don't show the Space Authority a cheaper way to continue with our expansion into this system," and Johnny paused a beat to emphasize his next words, "they might abandon it entirely."
"No!" Peter jerked upright at that, staring in alarm at the general, his face paling at the thought.
"Well, I wouldn't like that any more than you would, Pete. We'd both be out of the jobs we love. So, look this stuff over. Get familiar with the shape and mass of them. Think hard about just easing them," and Johnny linked his hands, emulating wings gliding through the air, "where they need to go." He dumped the pile of pictures onto Peter's lap. "Hell, for that matter," and this was an honest inspiration, "we could get them to set up a midway station. All I'm asking you to do now is think about it."
Peter looked over at the door and Johnny heard the click as he locked it. "People barge in here all the time." He activated the electrical unit that altered the bed into a sittingposition. He rearranged the pictures into a semicircle in the air around him.
"Whatever suits you, Pete." Johnny settled back down on the chair by the bed and, crossing his legs, idly swung one foot as his partner looked keenly at each picture.
There was a tentative knock on the door. "Who is it?" Johnny called.
"Nurse Roche," was the reply.
Peter's eyes rounded and he shook his head vigorously. Don't let her in!
"Come back in a few minutes, Nurse," Johnny called, without interrupting the motion of his swinging foot. He kept his expression bland. "D'you think those girders will give us a problem?"
"Uh? Oh, no, I don't think so." Peter glanced back at the specs, glad to concentrate on them. "Those plasglass panels might. Odd shapes."
He hadn't looked at more than three sheets before there was another knock on the door.
"Who is it?" Johnny called.
"Dorotea and Amariyah," was the muffled response.
"Oh, in that case, advance and be recognized," Johnny quipped, unlocking the door and standing up. He swept a low bow to the visitors, laden with flowers and Peter's favorite cookies.
Johnny didn't stay long after that but took the sheets with him. "Top secret, you know. 'Bye, now," and he waggled his fingers at Dorotea and Amariyah.
Peter was safe enough with them. However, the nurse he passed on his way down the hall was a very attractive redhead. She had a determined look on her face as she stopped outside the room he had just left. He wondered if she were Nurse Roche.
Peter was released from hospital three days later, the orthopedic specialist astounded by the rapidity with which the fractures had knitted. The ribs and the humerus fracture were almost healed.
"Most unusual, most unusual," he said, frowning at the evidence on the scan monitor. "Especially with the presence of some osteopenia and muscle atrophy."
"He's good about his Board exercises, swims almost daily, and has been conscientious in taking supplements. He's never been sick," Rhyssa said. "Since he joined the Center, that is," she added hastily when the doctor's eyebrows rose in surprise. She was equally surprised but wondered if such rapid recovery was some facet of Peter's maturing Talent. He was bound and determined to leave the hospital at the earliest opportunity. Not that she blamed him, knowing his antipathy to a hospital environment. With all the visitors, he wasn't getting enough rest either but she couldn't exactly hint to the admiral or the mayor to suspend their kindly meant visits. "Since there is knitting, can he leave now? We'll take very good care of him, I assure you. We're just as anxious that he heals completely as you are. He spent so long in the hospital after the other accident, I know he'll progress much more rapidly at home."
"Highly irregular, Ms. Lehardt. Ordinarily I would insist that he went to a convalescent home where proper nursing care is available twenty-four hours."
"He isn't ordinary, Doctor," Rhyssa said gently, and the doctor flushed. "He'll do much better with Ms. Horvath, I assure you. She's an excellent nurse and very strict. She won't let him lift a finger." She smiled at her most radiant and charmingly insistent, and with firm mental assurances.
"Medically I have no reason to keep him here," he said, tapping the scan's evidence. "It isn't as if he's on a course of medication."
Rhyssa was able to sense the reason the doctor wanted him to remain: he'd never had a chance to examine a parapsychic before. There had to be something that would show up on a Somatosensory Evoke Potential. But he doubted he could get permission to do one. This kid was too well connected to be used as a guinea pig. Reluctantly he agreed and signed the release.
Peter was nearly bouncing off the firm hospital mattress before the doctor was out the door.
"Hang on, will you, Peter? I've the Center ground vehicle in the parking lot. The hospital'll insist you go down on a grav-pad but don't… for Pete's sake," and she grinned at him, "fall out of your multiple-fracture role? Okay?"
He 'ported the clothes she had brought and she discreetly retired to the guest room while he put them on. Then she called for the transport and waited, Peter almost vibrating with anticipation. It seemed to take a long time. Then both of them became aware of voices in the hall, growing louder and louder. She opened the door to see four nurses arguing, with some heat, as to who was to escort Mr. Reidinger. If Peter pulled his head back in dismay, he also came as close to levitating his body onto the grav-pad as made no difference. The other nurses followed them to the elevator, pleasantly chatting about how glad they were he was well enough to go home, that he was to take it easy and not overdo, and they were glad to have been of assistance to him.
Only when the ground vehicle swung away from the exit did he seem to relax into his seat with an exaggerated sigh of relief. "That glad to go home, Peter?" Rhyssa asked.
"You've no idea!" he said fervently.
7
Rhyssa was especially grateful that he would be at Dorotea's during his convalescence. If Dorotea didn't have an eye on him, Amariyah would. Neither would let him do anything that might jeopardize the knitting of his broken bones.
Both Rhyssa and Dorotea thought that Admiral Coetzer's brief visit, three days later, prompted Peter's demand that he be allowed to work a light schedule.
"I listened," Dorotea said belligerently. She had been conspicuously in the garden when the Admiral arrived. "He has Peter's best interests at heart and it's obvious Dirk Coetzer misses the boy." Peter would always be a boy to Dorotea.