Gateways 07_ What Lay Beyond - Diane Carey [13]
It took two more nerve-racking trips across the catwalks to reach the scaffolding tower one-quarter of the way around the magnets. Then Kirk saw a Petraw standing against the far corner in the attitude of a guard.
Kirk pointed down, gesturing to Luz to keep quiet. She stayed at the back of the scaffolding, gazing fearfully at the hooded head of the defender. Kirk went forward to the front end of the scaffolding. A mere two meters made the difference. Now he had a view of everything in front of the magnetomotive.
The arch was the first thing he saw. It was standing in the center of a ring of lights, highlighted like a rare piece of art. It was an identical replica of the one they had found on the Kalandan station. The neutronium gleamed in blue-black highlights, and the impenetrable alloy was even molded into the same pattern. He knew he shouldn’t be surprised at anything the Petraw were capable of. Though they looked like simple underground dwellers, their technological capability exceeded that of almost every other culture he had encountered.
That arch changed everything. Kirk couldn’t begin to imagine the terrible things the Petraw would be capable of with an operational interstellar transporter. These people were ruthless and would use this technology to their own advantage. It was his fault the gateway had fallen into their hands.
Kirk was determined to change that. Staying very still to keep from attracting the attention of the guard, he searched for the cylindrical unit. In the very front of the magnetomotive, the huge rings were open, with a segment at least five meters wide cut out, indicating it was the more powerful open-flux system.
But he couldn’t see the key component of the gateway from his position. It wasn’t attached to the new arch, which meant he couldn’t steal it the same way Luz had done. Instead, there were a bunch of cables that snaked along the floor toward the magnetomotive.
Luz joined him, keeping a wary eye on the guard. Her sharp intake of breath indicated she saw the gateway, too.
A voice came from below. “You two get back to the door. Just because we’re holding a test run doesn’t mean you can leave your posts.”
Kirk couldn’t see who was talking, but he recognized her voice. It was Tasm.
A hooded Petraw strode up to the arch and knelt to check the cables. From nearly sixty meters up, Kirk couldn’t see much other than a sharply foreshortened view of her head and shoulders. “Is the flux stabilized yet?” Tasm asked.
Another Petraw somewhere down below and around the curve answered, “It has reached optimum level.”
“Proceed with the test run,” Tasm ordered.
She pulled back to the corner of the room, standing next to the defender who was posted there. If she looked up, she would see Kirk and Luz. He hardly breathed.
A different Petraw stepped up to face the gateway. Kirk clenched his hands around the scaffolding. They were at the point of testing the gateway? Those long days of dodging through the tubes and snatching naps in cul-de-sacs took on new meaning. The Petraw must have worked continuously to pull the gateway together.
The Petraw standing in front of the gateway let out a slight cry. “I see it!”
Inside the gateway an image had formed of windblown sand nearly burying two metallic structures. The orange sky looked fluorescent in the blazing light. Kirk recognized the surface near the fissure.
“Now go through,” Tasm urged from her safe spot across the room.
The Petraw eagerly stepped forward. Kirk leaned out as far as he dared to see the hooded form enter the gateway in a flash of brilliant light. The magnetomotive shook the scaffolding as power was drawn at a phenomenal rate.
Nothing came out the other side. The Petraw was gone.
The subsonic hum of the magnetomotive made Kirk’s head pound. Tasm was staring down at a handheld communicator, rigid in concentration. “Anx made it! He’s next to the shield generators.”
The unseen