Starplex Robert J Sawyer

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fire. Prominences licked toward the incoming projectile-- --and the
ship turned to vapor in the star's upper atmosphere.
Keith shouted, "Rhombus, hail our probeships!"
"Channel open."
"Return to Starplex!" said Keith. "All ships, return at once to
Starplex!"
Four probeships acknowledged and changed course, but one was still
pursuing its target.
"Rissa!" Keith shouted. "Turn back!"
Suddenly the second dark-matter whip cracked across the night, sending
another Waldahud ship hurtling toward the green star. Keith's head kept
snapping left and right between the twin horrors of Rissa's ship
receding from Starplex and the fighter's head-over-heels rush toward
destruction.
The Rum Runner was corkscrewing wildly as it approached the enemy
vessel. Laser fire from the Waldahud's rear cannons kept missing the
probeship, or glancing off its force screens. But, after a moment, the
firing stopped as the Waldahudin aboard presumably became absorbed in
the spectacle they, too, were no doubt monitoring.
The second ship the darmats had tossed toward the sun was rapidly
reaching its destination. Lifeboats popped away from it, but their puny
motors weren't strong enough to let them achieve orbit around the star.
The last sight the dying Waldahu-din probably saw on their monitor
screens was the star's strange dumbbell-shaped sunspots, gray-black
splotches against a hell of liquid jade.
The PDQ and the Dakterth were returning to Starplex now. Of course,
they had to approach from above or below to avoid the torus of hail
surrounding the ship. Rhombus was using tractor beams to pull them down
onto the flat surface of the central disk. There was no way to get them
into the docking bays--the ice prevented that--but there were emergency
docking clamps on both faces of the disk.
Rum Runner was still giving chase. "Rissa!" shouted Keith into his
mike. "For God's sake, Rissa--come home!"
Suddenly the Rum Runner's laser erupted, PHANTOM dutifully drawing in
its beam on the holographic display. It swept across the starscape.
Rissa's aim was perfect, severing the ship's engine pod from the craft
in one clean slice.
The pod tumbled against the night, a puff of expelled gas around it
shining like a halo of emeralds. And suddenly-- The pod flared
brilliantly, brighter even than the nearby star, as it went up in a
fusion explosion. Longbottle executed a crazed arcing maneuver to avoid
the expanding ball of plasma, then began a laser-straight path for
Starplex. The engineless Waldahud ship shot away at an oblique angle
under momentum, unable to maneuver.
The third dark-matter whip cracked, sending another Waldahud fighter
pinwheeling across the firmament. As this one passed by, Keith saw that
several of its hull plates had been deliberately blown away; the crew
had apparently preferred opening the ship to vacuum over cooking alive
as they plunged into the sun.
Next the combined double finger that had enveloped the huge Waldahud
ship began to rotate around its midpoint, playing out into a spiral
design like a galaxy as it did so, turning faster and faster. PHANTOM
showed the location of the ship buried within one arm of the spinning
mass. The rotation became more and more rapid, until finally, like an
athlete throwing a discus, the dark matter hurtled the giant ship away
from it. The bigger ship managed to regain control before it impacted
the sun, but as it startedto alter its course, the white fusion flames
of its exhaust stark against the green inferno, a giant prominence
arched upward from the photosphere, engulfing it.
"Four of our five probeships are safely clamped to our hull," reported
Rhombus. "And the Rum Runner will be back in eleven minutes."
Keith let out a heavy sigh. "Excellent. We must have everyone out of
the lower decks by now, right?"
"The final elevator is on its way up," said Lianne. "Give it another
thirty seconds."
"Okay. Keep the lower decks at zero-g so no more water will flow down.
Thor, stop spinning the ship."
"Will do."
"Director," said Rhombus, "Gawst's ship has attached itself to the
surface of our hull. He's holding in place with a tractor beam."
Keith smiled "Fancy that--a prisoner of war." He spoke loudly.
"Excellent work, everyone. Thor, Lianne, Rhombus--excellent."
He paused. "Thank God the darmats sided with us.
I guess it never hurts to be on speaking terms with the stuff that makes
up most of the universe, and--"
"Jesus.!" Thor's voice.
Keith's head snapped up to face the pilot. He'd spoken too soon.
Tendrils of dark matter were now closing on Starplex.
"We're next," said Rhombus.
"But we're orders of magnitude bigger than the Waldahud ships," said
Thor. "Surely they can't toss us into the star?"
"Only a third of the dark matter participated in the attack on the
Waldahud forces," said Rhombus. "If it all comes after us--PHANTOM, can
they do it?"
"Yes."
"Hail Cat's Eye," said Keith. "I better talk to him."
"Locating vacant frequency," said Rhombus. "Transmitting . . . No
response."
"Thor, get us out of here," said Keith.
"Course?"
Keith considered for half a second. "Toward the shortcut."
But he immediately realized that dark-matter tendrils had already
started to intervene between Starplex and that invisible point in space.
"No, change that," he snapped.
"Bring us in close to the green star, in the opposite direction.
And get Jag down here, PHANTOM."
"You ordered him barred from this room, sir," said the computer.
"I know that. I'm giving you new instructions. Get him down here right
away."
There was a moment's silence while PHANTOM conferred with Jag. "He is
on his way."
"What're you got in mind?" asked Rhombus. Dark matter was approaching [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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