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!
That done, he decided that he'd better put some time in now on the Reeve Board. He needed a workout if only to get rid of the tissue salts built up by the morning's tensions. Maybe it would take care of the tingling sensation he'd been getting in his chest. He didn't have time to be sick or anything. Not when he could get to First Base.
Johnny made his way to the Limo's cockpit as the rest of the passengers and crew settled themselves and strapped in. He noted the three seismic engineers from the Japanese army, three servicemen in First Base slate-gray fatigues on their way back after R and R, the two replacement cooks, both women, and the four men who must be the solar heating engineers. Johnny nodded a greeting to the young lieutenant in the copilot's seat.
"Well, Mr. Liu, I can see that the admiral is sparing none but the best for our jaunt, " Johnny said with a grin. He looked around, noticed that Peter had taken the engineer's chair and absently waved him out of it. "Peter, that's the chair for the third officer. We stand three watches on a Limo." He turned back to Xiang Liu. "Who have we got for third watch-Carnegie?"
Lieutenant Liu glanced at Peter before replying blandly, "Sir, we're at full complement now."
"What?" Johnny groaned. "We're going to fly this tub watch and ward?"
Peter cleared his throat. "The admiral thought I could stand in."
"You?" Johnny's green-flecked amber eyes widened. "Peter, flying a Limo is serious work, it's-"
"Ninety-eight percent boredom and two percent sheer terror," Peter said, finishing Johnny's famous quote. He pulled some flimsies from his pocket. "Here's my flight certificate, simulator log book, and rating."
Behind him, Liu nodded and smiled encouragingly.
Johnny spluttered. "But those ratings have to be signed-"
"By Admiral Coetzer himself, sir," the lieutenant said. "He's taken a great interest in Mr. Reidinger's progress."
Johnny narrowed his eyes at the young lieutenant. "And what do you have to do with this?"
"Xiang was one of my three flight instructors," Peter replied. "Don't you remember encouraging me to learn more while I was busy healing?"
"Coming up on our launch window in two minutes, sir," Lieutenant Liu reported in a circumspect tone of voice, forcing the general to make a decision.
Johnny frowned. Peter, you don't have to do this, you know.
But I do!
General John Greene pursed his lips tightly. After some moments he nodded abruptly. "Very well, Mr. Reidinger, is the ship secure?"
Peter suppressed an exhilarated grin, forcing himself to check the engineering gauges. "Cargo locks secured, port side passenger lock closing-now!" he said, adding formally, "Sir, the ship is secure."
"CIC's hailing us, sir," Lieutenant Liu said, tapping his headset.
Johnny tensed to respond and then sat back, waiting. Peter didn't need the hint to know that as junior he was responsible for all radio traffic. He adjusted his headset and responded, "CIC, this is Limo-34."
Admiral Coetzer himself responded. "Roger, Limo-34, what's your status?"
Peter turned to Johnny. "CIC asks what's our status, sir."
"And what is our status, Mr. Reidinger?" Johnny replied, continuing his own test of Peter's knowledge.
Peter glanced over the control panels. Environmentaclass="underline" green, Electricaclass="underline" green, Nav. and Comm.: green, RCS: green, Main engines: green, Computer-
"Sir, there's a fault on main processing unit two," Peter said.
Lieutenant Liu glanced up from his preflight check, toggled a switch, and went back to work.
"Taking MPU Two off-line," Liu announced. He muttered, "We've got five more."
"Sir, our status is green," Peter said. "Will you check me?"
Johnny smiled. "Yes, Mr. Reidinger, I check you. Our status is green."
"CIC, Limo-34 reports status green."
"Roger, 34, you are cleared for departure. Once clear, contact Padrugoi Departure on 120.41" the admiral replied.
"Limo-34 on 120.4," Peter repeated, punching in Padrugoi Departure's frequency on the second radio. To Johnny he said, "Clear for departure, sir."
"Roger," Johnny said. To Liu, "Unlock clamps two forward, three aft, four aft, and one forward."
Liu ran quick fingers over the control panels. "All clamps unlocked."
Johnny pursed his lips for a moment, then said, "Mr. Reidinger, take us out."
Again Peter had to suppress a surge of excitement as he punched in the codes to power his thruster control panel. "Mr. Liu, are we scheduled for a standard departure?"
"Yes," was the prompt reply.
Peter nodded, put in the standard codes he had memorized under Xiang Liu's guidance, and radioed CIC. "Limo-34 is free and thrusting negative-y at five point zero meters per second on standard departure vector."
Peter half expected Johnny to quiz him for saying "negative-y" instead of "down"-a question he'd been asked many times in training and he had his answer ready. "Down" is too vague in space; saying that you're thrusting on the negative-y axis states exactly what you're doing relative to Padrugoi-which is the largest craft.
And all spacecraft maneuvers use the largest craft's frame of reference-a very good explanation! Johnny agreed with a chuckle.
Peter was chagrined to discover that his subvocalization had been so loud that Johnny had heard it.
"Roger, 34," a new voice, not the admiral's, responded. "Radar has a clean separation. You are go for de-rendezvous maneuvers."
Peter knew from his long hours in the simulators that the motions of the two spacecraft in close orbit were not at all intuitive. In fact, in order to slip behind Padrugoi, Limo-34 would have to speed up-and it would take a wild ride around the front of Padrugoi before the shuttle got behind the space station. But first the Limo would have to crawl to a safe distance from the Station before it could fire its thrusters. Moving at a meter a second, it would take over three minutes-Peter checked the countdown clock-before the shuttle could begin the de-rendezvous maneuver that would put Padrugoi safely out of harm's way.
There was an age-old tradition in military and paramilitary services of hazing any new trainee or officer. Because of his duties and peculiar condition, Peter had escaped that. John Greene felt that most of the hazing he had ever seen had been cruel and a waste of effort all around. With one exception.
"Mr. Reidinger, outline our flight profile," Johnny ordered.
"Yes, sir," Peter replied. "Our de-rendezvous maneuver will move us from a circular orbit identical to Padrugoi's to an elliptical orbit with an apogee 5,000 kilometers above Padrugoi's orbit-and change the time it takes to orbit the Earth from eighty-eight minutes to one hundred and forty-two minutes."
Johnny motioned for Peter to continue.
"That burn is designated OAM-1," Peter continued. "The next burn occurs at the top of that orbit, seventy-one minutes later. The purpose of the burn is to change the inclination of our orbit from Padrugoi's 28.5-degree inclination to the Earth to the Moon's fivedegree inclination-so that we are in line with the Moon.
"That burn is designated OIM-2, orbital inclination maneuver two," Peter went on. He could feel Xiang's approval. He didn't dare reach for Johnny's yet. "Seventy-one minutes after that we will be back at our closest point to the Earth-"