Ring Around the Sky - Allyn Gibson [30]
Gold rose and looked at Tev. “Already? We’ve only just engaged it.”
Tev nodded. “It’s the elevator’s size, sir. Its length and its mass, now increased due to the structural integrity fields. The tractors simply weren’t designed for it.”
Gold looked to Shabalala. “We’re holding the elevator in place, Captain,” he reported. “I could be wrong, but it looks like bottom of the shaft may have fallen into the ocean.”
“Damn,” said Gold as he returned to his seat. He looked to Grevesh at his left. “We’re doing what we can.”
Grevesh nodded slowly and put his withered hand on Gold’s knee. “I know, Captain. I know.”
“Captain,” said Gomez, catching his attention, “I have an idea. What it we broke the shaft in two with a photon torpedo?”
Shabalala shook his head. “With all due respect, sir, we’d never get a firing solution. Not from where we are.”
Tev came to Shabalala’s side and looked to Gomez and Gold. “The lieutenant is correct. Positioned above the terminus as we are, we could not fire on the elevator’s base, nor at any point along its length, with any accuracy. But if we were to drop the tractor beam and maneuver to a lower orbit, we could accurately target any point we wish.”
Eevraith put his hand on Tev’s shoulder and shook his head. “We haven’t time for that, Tev.”
Tev brushed Eevraith’s hand away. “Captain,” he said quietly, “we have the time. We need only go down and away, as quickly as we can.”
Gold looked from Eevraith to Tev and back. He scowled.
“Shabalala,” Gold said at last, “load torpedo bays.” He turned to Wong. “You heard Tev. Down and away, your discretion.”
The conn officer nodded. “Course plotted, Captain.”
Gold took a deep breath. “Wong, as soon as the tractors disengage, full impulse.”
Wong swallowed hard and nodded. “Aye, sir.”
Leaning back in his command chair, Gold said, “Shabalala, disengage the tractor beam. Wong, go!”
The engine whine ceased as Gold felt himself pressed back by inertia into his command seat as the inertial dampers worked overtime.
“We’re in position, Captain,” said Wong.
On the viewscreen was the elevator, running from top to bottom of the screen. Behind it, curving away, was the Ring as it passed behind Kharzh’ulla and dwindled in the distance.
Gold looked to Tev. An unspoken communication passed between them. Tev nodded.
“Fire,” said Gold.
Dark clouds had begun to roll in from the south. Abramowitz paid them no attention, save to note their obscuring of the elevator at the horizon.
“The elevator looks as though it’s toppling,” said Stevens.
Abramowitz nodded. The terminus had fallen significantly away from the Ring by ten degrees of separation. Whether the separation was due to the elevator falling toward Kharzh’ulla or away from them in Prelv she couldn’t tell from her vantage point.
A bright flash in the southeast sky caught her attention. A shuttlecraft, the sunlight glinting off its side? No, something else.
“Those are photon torpedoes,” Stevens said.
Overhead bright lights streaked across the sky and made contact with the elevator above the cloudheads.
Above the point where the torpedoes struck the elevator, it began to list significantly. Abramowitz even thought the elevator might have been broken in two.
The da Vinci sped back to the elevator terminus. In the minutes since the torpedo detonation it had fallen closer to Kharzh’ulla’s surface—not by much, only a few dozen kilometers.
“Engage tractors,” ordered Gold.
Shabalala nodded and touched his console. “Tractors engaged.” The engine whine, while not as harsh as earlier, was still louder than Gold would have wished.
“Captain,” said Tev, “the lower portion of the elevator will fall into Kharzh’ulla’s ocean.”
“Impact?” Grevesh asked, his hands trembling.
Tev took a deep breath and sighed. “The section is three hundred kilometers long. In its impact path there are no landmasses. At a guess, waves five meters high might come ashore in Prelv.”
“What’s the distance from the base to Prelv?” asked Gomez.
“Three thousand kilometers.