Quest for the Well of Souls - Jack L. Chalker [98]
He activated the intercom. "Everyone okay?"
"Some bruises, and Mavra and Wooley are out cold, but I think we all came through," Renard replied.
Yulin turned his attention to the controls. They had made orbital insertion while he talked, and were only a few kilometers per hour from the optimum and less than a fifth of a degree off-orbit. Easily correctable, and he told the computer to make the adjustments.
The large screen came on, providing a remarkably detailed picture of what was ahead. The Well World filled most of the area below them, and, as he watched, New Pompeii rose. He would make one pass as a check before going final approach.
On the screen, columns of figures shot by at speeds barely slow enough to read, and graphics showed angle, speed, and destination. The computer was locking in for Phase Two.
But the critical human element was gone now. It was the computer's job to follow the carefully programmed instructions and do all the work. The passengers could only hope that the systems would continue to function as well as they had so far.
"How's it going back there?" Yulin asked over the intercom.
"All right now," Vistaru's soft voice answered. "We have Wooley back with us again, and we've undone Mavra's straps and got her to her feet. That's all right, isn't it?"
"Fine," he responded. "There will be only slight motion problems now that the ship's in its element. We're braking over North Zone, and the screens say it's a perfect intercept. All we can do is watch and wait."
* * *
"On track," Yulin announced. "Locked in. All right, people. Hold on. Here we go."
The big screen showed the Well World, ship, and New Pompeii clearly. Small dotted lines indicated the ideal and actual trajectories. The multicolor graphics were of no use to Yulin's color-blind eyes, but he knew which trajectory was which by the pattern of characters that composed each curve. He felt slight jerking motions as the computer adjusted speed and direction. Slowly but steadily the two traces were merging into a single perfect flight path.
Suddenly the radio popped on.
"Code, please," a mechanical voice demanded pleasantly. "Correct code within sixty seconds or we will destroy your ship."
Yulin almost jumped out of his skin; panic suddenly rose within him. He'd been so intent on the takeoff and approach he'd just about forgotten about the robot sentries. He could see them on the screen, little dots moving to intercept and take him out. He gulped.
His mind was a complete blank.
"Fifty seconds," the voice said pleasantly.
He punched the intercom. "Is Chang awake yet?" he screamed.
"Still groggy," Renard replied. "Why?"
"I need the damned code!"' he yelled.
"Forty seconds," said the voice.
"I thought you knew it," Wooley responded accusingly.
"I can't remember, damn it! Ask her the goddamned code now!"
"Thirty seconds," said the voice. The little dots were in perfect attack position now.
Suddenly a new voice came in over the radio on the same frequency. It was a man's voice, soft and pleasant.
"It's Edward Gibbon, Volume One, Ben," said the voice.
He was startled but he grabbed at it.
"Twenty seconds," said the robot sentry.
"Edward Gibbon, Volume One!" he screamed.
"There was silence, and he watched the LED clock tick off. It passed ten seconds, and there was no new warning. Now it counted off the last ten. As it did he glanced up and saw the little blips break formation and resume their stations.
Ben Yulin almost fainted.
"It's Edward Gibbon, Volume One, Ben," Vistaru said pleasantly.
"I know, I know," he growled, out of breath. "If I had to depend on you we'd have died thirty seconds ago."
But who had given him the code? Not the Bozog. Though almost certainly they were monitoring the radio, it was too human a voice for that. A familiar voice, somehow, from the distant past. But this was a journey into that past, as much as into the future, he thought.
He flipped on the interspace radio and called,