[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
hurry! Please hurry. I can't stand not knowing."
There was a pregnant pause, then the monitor blinked.
_Ground control has a hold on communications at the present time.
Estimated waiting time for landing instructions and data is two hours._
_"_I'll die before then!"
_I record no indication of ill health._
Janie waved a hand just as if the computer would understand the gesture
as readily as a human. "Just an expression, Herc. It means I'm terribly
impatient and waiting that long will be hard!"
_I can insinuate myself into the ground control computer and upload
past communications if that will be a help._
"You can? Please do it, Hercules. Key word is Steve Joplin, either both
words together of singly. Any time since that last message got cut off."
"You're corrupting him," Sheila whispered into Janie's ear.
"No I'm not. He's trying to help me and he won't do any harm."
"How do you know?"
"Well, I don't, but never mind. I can't wait."
The monitor blinked.
_I find one communication with both key words. Further communications
were encrypted. Should I break the code and upload?_
"Can you do that?"
_Yes, it is relatively easy and fun, as humans would interpret the
process. Upload complete. Communications being displayed._
Janie read the recording of Wiggins' conversation with Steve and the
other crew members with a profound sense of relief -- and a new urgency to get
to the ground and hug Steve to her and never let him out of her sight again.
Sheila looked at her strangely as she leaned down and kissed the
computer monitor as if it were a person. Was this the agenda the sentient
computer had settled on? Helping Janie for some obscure reason that they would
probably never know? It could do worse, she thought, remembering stories of
how bizarrely sentient computers usually acted.
* * * *
The ground car was barely out of range of the down blast when another shuttle
came in for a landing.
Wiggins cursed. "They're not even waiting on landing instructions now.
One of them is jamming well going to crash if they don't watch it." He
throttled the people carrier up to its highest setting, making it bump and
jerk the passengers around as it hit bumps in the indifferently maintained
road.
"Come on in with me while I try to get this place sorted out!" Wiggins
said loudly as the vehicle pulled to a halt in front of a prefab building,
detectable as the control center only by the plethora of antennas sticking up
from it. Otherwise, it looked like all the others. He ran inside and
immediately confronted two men wearing the blue tunics of the Plemmons clan.
They had hand lasers out and pointed at a man and a woman at the big computer
and control alcove.
The Plemmons corpsmen were paying such close attention to their
captives that Wiggins was able to surprise them, with the help of Derik and
the captives themselves. Even as one of the blue-clad men was shouting
"Halt!", and shifting his weapon to cover him, Wiggins had his own gun drawn
and pointed in their direction.
The Plemmons gunmen were obviously not as well trained as they should
have been. As they shifted their weapons, the two captives rose as one and
jumped them from behind. Only one beam was fired and it went astray.
Steve had reacted just as fast as Wiggins, his martial arts practice so
ingrained that his foot was already sweeping out in a kick toward the nearest
Plemmons, designed to knock away the laser gun. Instead, as the man was hit
from behind and fell forward, his foot connected solidly to the man's jaw,
knocking it sideways and breaking it in two places. He was unconscious before
he hit the floor. His companion shouted out surrenders over and over again,
hoping to avoid being killed -- which was what he thought his erstwhile
captives intended.
Derik found out why the man was so scared a few seconds later. While
capturing the ground control building, they had killed one of the controllers
and stuffed his body into a closet. One of the Tremaine controllers wanted to
execute the two killers immediately but Wiggins forbade it. He wanted
information, which the captive who was unhurt readily gave.
"It was the Plemmons execs who gave the orders. They're planning on
taking over everything here."
"Why? And why are so many ships coming from earth all of a sudden?"
"You don't know? The jamming bonders, Tremaine and Plemmons both, are
running wild. They're capturing weapons and killing any exec they get their
hands on. And Corpolice, too", he added, which told Wiggins what their
profession had been, even though they had proven to be somewhat inept at it.
However, long years of respect for their uniforms by the bonders had given
them little cause to be cautious and many reasons to think they were
invulnerable. They were just learning that when the worm turns, it turns on
everyone, the mighty and lowly alike.
"Is it happening all over the earth or just in the Americas?"
"It's everywhere. A lot of cities are burning and one of the spaceports
has been overrun. That's why the Plemmons are so anxious to get away that
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]