The Other Side of Nowhere
- Автор: Лейнстер Мюррей
- Год: 1964
- Язык: английский
- Год: Berkley Medallion
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «The Other Side of Nowhere». Краткое содержание книги:
For centuries space travelers had dreaded a place they called the Other Side of Nowhere — a place in the universe where up was down, where right was wrong, and where all direction was lost...
To save the RIM STAR Braden had to bring the ship to the place of nightmare, the Other Side of Nowhere...
Obviously, no newly colonized planet could be considered complete without a grid. Supplies and materials for the first new colony had to be hauled by drone ships which were towed to position and then landed on rockets. All this was inordinately costly, and there were accidents. But if the Rim Star could land under control, she could carry in one trip nearly everything needed for a new colony, including the grid. If she could do that, the huge ship would cease to be a white elephant and would once more be profitable to own and operate. But the landing had to be tried before it could be counted on.
The small group of crewmen followed Braden toward the ship. The toy-sized yacht had gone away, and the medium-sized freighter was discharging cargo. A meatship from the llano planet Chagan seemed to smoke faintly, with hoarfrost on its plating and icicles forming on its lower parts. It had made a very good breakout from overdrive and had come to ground before even the unshielded sunshine could warm it above the freezing point of water.
Two skimmers came in the gate and floated swiftly across the tarmac. Four inches of clear space showed between their bottom ducts and the floor of the spaceport. They sped past Braden and the crew with the smooth celerity of frictionless things. They reached the Rim Star and settled to the ground.
Figures got out of the skimmers. They watched as baggage was put aboard the ship. Then they went aboard her and inside, and the port was closed. The skimmers left. Nothing of any marked importance seemed to have happened. But two of the distant figures were women. Their faces could not be seen, but their figures were lithe and young.
Braden muttered under his breath. Then he heard a strange sound. The five members of the Rim Star's crew were laughing. There was nothing to laugh at, but still they laughed. They looked at the now-closed port, and at each other, and they laughed uproariously at something exquisitely humorous that only they knew about. If they were laughing because there were women among the Rim Star's passengers, it did not promise an orderly and peaceful voyage. But there was little that Braden could do about it. He could change his mind and stay behind, instead of going on the voyage. But somebody else would serve as mate - perhaps someone the crew would approve, as they hadn't the skipper's first choice. For him to back out would do no good. The five crewmen, still laughing unpleasantly, would go. And the passengers.
He ground his teeth. There was a lot out of the ordinary in this voyage. He began to suspect a number of things. But the Rim Star was his ship now, since he'd taken the berth as mate. And the first and fundamental duty of a merchant-space officer is to his ship.
Chapter 2
The steward with straw-colored hair let them into the Rim Star's personnel lock. Braden regarded him without approval. He said curtly:
"Take these men to their quarters, Steward, and impress on them that though you may be the steward of this ship, I'm the mate. It might be a good idea to remind yourself, too!"
"Yes, sir," said the steward deferentially. "I will, sir. I'm sorry that in trying to be helpful I offended you, sir."
Braden scowled. He went up the circling succession of ramps and stairways to the top of the ship. On the way, now, he took more careful note of the long ascent. This time he particularly noticed the hinged panels which would open upon catwalks between the enormous holds of the ship. He observed the monitor-boxes in detail. They would faithfully report to panels in the control-room the physical conditions where they were located, and each of them could be used as an intercom in case of need. The catwalks behind the hinged panels would allow any part of the ship's skin to be reached from inside.
The ship was truly gigantic, though she carried a crew of only six men. Now there'd be only five, with two officers and the steward. On duty, every man would be remote from his fellows. There was, of course, no engine-room crew because Lawlor space-drives had no moving parts to be tended. A ship's drive was inspected by highly trained technicians at spaceports, and that was that.
Out in space, the ship would have the feel of a silent, tremendous prison, moving through emptiness on some errand of her own. It seemed incredible that so huge a structure could be controlled by so small a number of human beings. A tour of duty would be a period of isolation, and there should be no sound or movement anywhere in ninety-nine per cent of her volume. Her corridors should be echoingly empty. Guiding her would be the concern only of computers and integrators and other devices sealed safely away, never to be touched except in port and by specialists. Men on board so vast a mechanism would tend to feel insignificant.
But as Braden went, frowning, to report himse on board, he was not thinking of such matters. He was reporting according to orders, two hours before lift-off. He had no time to familiarize himself with all the minor points which made this ship an individual and which a mate should know much better than the palm of his own hand. The skipper was responsible to the owner for the management of the Rim Star, but Braden was responsible for everything by which the managing was done.
He reached the upper corridor-straight where the ascending route was curved; better-lighted, with glow lamps everywhere instead of thirty feet apart as in the center of a corridor's ceiling. He came to the officers' area and saw a cabin door with MATE painted on it. He opened the door and dropped his ship-bag inside it. He went on and tapped at the outermost of the three doors he'd passed through on his way to the skipper the night before.
The skipper's voice rumbled.
"Braden, sir," said Braden stiffly. "Reporting aboard."
The rumbling again.
"Any special orders, sir?" asked Braden.
The skipper did not tell him to come in, but Braden heard him rise. He opened the door of his cabin. He was a huge man.
"What special orders do you expect, Mister?" He blinked at Braden, through eyes almost closed by fat. "Don't you know your work?"
"I do, sir," said Braden, "but it's less than two hours to take-off. That's when I was ordered to report. If I'm to assign duty to the crewmen and make the regular check in the control-room, I won't have time to go over the ship as I should. So I'm asking for orders."
The skipper rumbled deep in his throat.
'The steward can assign duty to the crew," he growled; "and he's checked the ship. I told him to. He's perfectly capable, Mr. Braden! Been with me on two long voyages. You check the control-room. That's your special order!"
Braden flushed angrily. The skipper added sardonically:
"You can put it in the log, Mr. Braden! Put it in the log!"
He closed the door and Braden's hands clenched. Checking the controls was the most necessary of all the duties of a mate before a ship lifted off. But everything was necessary! A spaceship is practically a gigantic robot, and inspections and tests are the price of its proper operation. It can be designed to respond to an extremely large number of stimuli on the "if-this- happens-do-that" order, but it can only respond to happenings that can be predicted. In an emergency that has not been foreseen, any automatic device is helpless. But Braden was angered at the steward's having done the work that should have been done by him, that is part of a mate's duty.
He went to the control-room. He met nobody. Naturally, for in a ship nearly a quarter of a mile long, a crew of six men - or five - is spread thin. Passengers do not count, for they stay in their cabins and the steward sees that they are fed. So far as the mate is concerned, they can be ignored.