Cold Fusion - Lance Parkin [72]
‘Oh look.’ A young man had joined her. He was tall and broad, built like a gravball player. He wore a designer suit
– it probably came from Earth itself. They made a show of kissing.
Lewis felt a twinge of jealousy. ‘Still think she’s the virginal type?’
‘My turn. Camera Three: main concourse. Those three Kalkravian nuns.’
‘So where are we going?’
Chris held up the tickets. ‘We’re taking a linking flight to Beta Five, then picking up a Hyperion for a three-week safari on Heunppa, one of the Rimworlds.’
Nyssa slipped her arm around his waist. ‘It sounds wonderful.’
They joined the queue for the offworld transmat, Chris was still hobbling a little on his twisted ankle. There were only about a dozen people ahead of them. This planet was a little off the beaten track, and had strict rules about foreign travel. Most of the people in the spaceport were offworlders, and that included the armed Adjudicators patrolling the concourses. Although the spaceport was large, it had to support the entire population of the planet.
The Adjudicator removed someone from the queue the only apparent reason being that he had warpaint on his face.
It was only a minute or so before it was their turn. An Adjudicator scanned them and Chris’s suitcase for weapons and checked their ID. He moved them on, indicating that they should stand side by side on the transmat platform And then they were on the Skybase. The transmat chamber was fairly featureless, although there was a customs information hologram hovering from one of the walls. A Scientifica administrator conducted another weapons scan more cursory this time, and then they were ushered down the transparent walkway to the departure lounge. As they walked along the corridor, the planet filled the view beneath them, revolving at a leisurely nineteen miles a second. Even the hardened space travellers were taking a moment to stop and stare at such a magnificent sight. It looked just as it had from the TARDIS monitor, with thick blue-grey clouds at the poles, thinning out over the dark equator. At this distance the Strip was about as wide as Nyssa’s finger.
They reached the end of the corridor. A man in a grey tunic bobbed toward them.
‘Good afternoon Mr and Mrs Cwej. Booking in for your flight will take place in around twenty minutes. Please feel free to look around and order any drinks while you wait.’
‘Thank you,’ Nyssa replied, but the man was already drifting over to the next in the queue.
Chris tapped her on the shoulder and inclined his head towards a side door marked ‘Staff Only’. They moved over to it as casually as they could. It was unlocked. They stepped inside, Nyssa carefully closing the door behind them. It was a staff room of some kind with droid recharging points in one corner and a kitchenette in the other. A holographic noticeboard hovered above one of the tables, apparently displaying a timetable of some kind.
Nyssa’s attention was drawn by the room’s viewport. It pointed away from the planet into deep space.
‘There won’t be any ventilation ducts, will there’ , Nyssa glanced down. ‘I’m not really dressed for those.’ Nyssa glanced down. ‘I’m not really dressed at all.’ Chris had provided the jade green dress from somewhere, assuring her that she ought to wear it. Although it was an exact fit, Nyssa wasn’t used to clothing that clung to her with quite so much dedication.
‘Don’t worry, It’s all walkways and carpeted corridors.
And you look great.’
‘Where are we?’
‘This is one of the pilot ready rooms. That hatch’, he pointed to a big square plate on the floor, ‘leads straight down to the hangar.’
There was a burst of light from outside.
Chris stepped carefully over to the window Nyssa was already there. A gunmetal slab had appeared in the distance, and was heading towards them. As it got closer Nyssa could make out more details: points of lights that were viewports, vents and pipes running along the side.
Writing and other markings.
‘It’s an Earth ship,’ Nyssa concluded.
‘Yes, a Type Twelve freighter.’ Chris screwed up his eyes as he tried