Orphans - Kevin Killiany [18]
“How is the power drain, Specialist?”Tev asked Stevens.
“About three percent of what she draws is disappearing.” He watched the readout for a moment.
“Now it’s four percent. I don’t think we have much time.”
Each of the others recharged their suit’s systems in turn. Kairn was last, and by the time he hooked to the generator, less than ten percent of its energy was going into his batteries. The rest went…elsewhere. Stevens still could not determine how the siphoned energy disappeared.
The generator shifted position as Kairn disconnected.
“It’s losing its grapples,” Stevens said. “Better get it out of here.”
“Let it go.”Conlon’s voice was barely recognizable through the static over the communication from the ship.
“Huh?” he asked brightly.
“Chief Engineer Conlon is correct,”Tev said. “If the energy tap has locked on to the generator, beaming it aboard the da Vinci might enable it to access ship’s systems.”
They stood back as the massive device began sliding along a curving path toward the edge of the ship, two kilometers distant. It was lost to sight in moments.
A blue-gray wall, six meters by six meters, jutted abruptly from the surface, blotting out a section of streaking stars. Between them and it was a hole, also six meters square, discernable only as a featureless blackness against the dark blue-gray of the surface.
What sort of culture would make the entrance to their world a simple tunnel open to space?Stevens wondered. Then again, he had to admit, they had no idea what might be waiting just inside. He was fairly certain that once they crossed the threshold, the energy-absorbing field would block all communications with da Vinci.
Well, the mission design did call for them to be completely on their own for six days on the inside. With luck, sufficient time to survey possible locations for the control center. It would be at least that long before anyone called them, anyway.
By now, “down” was emphatically toward the outer edge. The danger of the hole was not falling in, but loss of contact that would fling them into space. They gave the square void a wide berth, approaching the wall from the side. Stevens noted it was only about ten centimeters thick and wondered if it could support them. A simple tricorder scan would have told, but might also have drained its energy. Best to save active scans for something more critical.
Kairn evidently had similar concerns. He used hand signals to order the others to remain, then stepped onto the wall alone. He stood for a moment, horizontal from their perspective, then gestured the others to join him.
Stepping to a perpendicular surface was awkward, but it was a relief to Stevens to reorient himself as they set his boots down onto the structure. Instantly the forward drag he’d been fighting disappeared as the wall became a ledge, “down” now firmly and comfortably toward the soles of his feet. The surface they’d traversed was now a wall stretching endlessly above them, while the stars…
Stevens turned quickly back to face the ship.
“Magnets,”said Kairn.
He paused as everyone switched off their high-energy gravimetrics, then entered the tunnel. With their suit lamps at the lowest setting, the away team followed him into the darkness.
CHAPTER
10
Ahrhi uncoiled from the crouch, sword hand bracing her shield as she thrust upward with all the power of her thighs and back. The heart of her shield slammed her opponent’s elbows and its metal bezel caught his wrists, interrupting a double-handed down stroke meant to split her in half. The raider reeled backward, the broadsword flying from his ruined grasp.
The second raider lunged from her right, but he was a step too far and out of position, his shortsword still raised to hack down on her crouching form.
At the top of her leap, her weight barely on the balls of her feet, her belly floating free,