Ishtar Rising (Book 2) - Michael A. Martin [2]
“Did the fields close up all right behind us?” Gomez asked.
“Yes,” P8 replied. “That jolt we felt was from the superpressurized gases that followed us through the aperture for a nanosecond or so.”
The viewscreens were clearer now, though the air was tinted a dingy goldenrod hue, as though saturated with pollen. Gomez tried the communicator again. “Aphrodite Station, this is Shuttlecraft Kwolek. Please respond.” As before, nothing issued from the console speakers except a burst of background static. Gomez smacked her palm against her leg in frustration.
“We’re getting low enough to see something,” Stevens said, pointing forward.
“That doesn’t look good,” said Corsi, unnecessarily.
As they descended further, the forward windows presented a relatively unobstructed view of Ground Station Aphrodite—or rather, what was left of it. The roughly disk-shaped, twenty-meter-diameter facility had been built on a small mesa-like bluff. Part of that bluff had crumbled, and had taken a substantial section of the station’s external pressure dome with it.
And surrounding the partially shattered mesa was an almost blindingly bright, white-hot magma sea.
“There’s no way anything could still be alive down there,” said Tev matter-of-factly.
“We don’t know that yet,” said Gomez. “We have to find out for sure. Take us in closer, Domenica.”
“That lava flow is getting closer, too,” P8 said. “It’s almost reached the facility’s main level.”
“The sensors are still being confused by the ionized atmosphere,” Tev said. “So unless the survivors get outside, a transporter lock’s out of the question.”
Gomez nodded grimly. “Then we’re going to have to get them out some other way.”
“They can’t go out in this soup without being immolated,” Stevens said. “Even the best environmental suit wouldn’t last more than a few seconds out there.”
Corsi glanced at Gomez. “Even if we could get them outside in EV suits, where am I supposed to land this beast? The roof’s too unstable. It’s barely able to hold up its own weight, let alone ours.”
Gomez studied the partially collapsed roof, which was glowing a dull red in the places where the Venusian atmosphere had begun to melt it. A structure that looked a lot like a water tank sat precariously on the roof’s far edge. Was there some way to make use of that?
“I think I know what to do,” P8 said, rising from her chair. Gomez noticed that the Nasat also seemed to be examining the station’s roof very carefully. “And I’m the only one who can do it.”
“What do you have in mind?” Gomez wanted to know.
Pattie’s gaze grew intense. “First, I’ll need some of our construction tools….”
Chapter
2
As the shuttle hovered scarcely more than three meters above the station’s damaged roof, the air below it shimmered for a moment. The transporter beam dissipated with agonizing sluggishness, finally leaving P8 Blue standing on the roof, her hard carapace exposed to the worst Venus had to offer. Strapped to her back was a large duranium locker that contained—she hoped—everything she needed to rescue whomever she found here.
In addition to the oppressive, caustic air—which, fortunately, Project Ishtar’s force fields had thinned just enough for her to survive, at least temporarily—P8 could feel the intense heat from the magma that was surrounding the building. But she knew that as bad as it was for her, it would be far worse for anyone who lacked the advantage of her carapace. The natural membranes covering her eyes allowed her to see where she was going, and she wouldn’t need oxygen for quite some time. She ran to the edge of the roof, then scuttled over the side, her eight hands having to work harder than she expected to maintain a grip on the structure’s smooth polyduranium alloy.
As she came perilously close to the ground—and to the rising tide of detritus-speckled lava—she found the airlock’s hatch controls. It was a bit tricky entering the code from an upside-down orientation, but she managed, then crawled into the airlock as the door hissed open. Once inside she punched