[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
helpful than my senses."
After a few minutes, Cotta announced the results. "Telemetric constellation
configuration confirms we are in the trinary system of Sirius, nine
light-years from Earth, approximately eighty-six trillion kilometers from our
favorite restaurants."
If their mission had been one of scientific exploration, the man's
proclamation would have triggered
240
JAMES AXLER
a celebration, but under the circumstances the crew's reaction was hardly
jubilant.
Kane instantly recalled that ancient Asian legends alleged the Chintamani
Stone originated hi the star system of Sirius. He knew arriving here was not a
coincidence. Reflexively he looked toward Baptiste, on the verge of pointing
it out to her, then realized she knew nothing of the Chintamani Stone.
But to his surprise, she said, "Interesting. The Do-gon people of West Africa
claimed that alien beings from Sirius arrived on Earth many thousands of years
ago. The Dogons possessed detailed astronomical knowledge of the system,
claiming it had two sister stars long before their existence was ever
verified."
Grant did not seem impressed or particularly interested. "So we're the first
Commonwealth ship to reach another solar system. Now what?"
"Good question," Kane replied. "Maybe Jozure has a suggestion."
"I'll bet he does," Baptiste put in. "But I doubt it'll be applicable to this
situation."
The three of them exchanged easy, comfortable smiles. Then Baptiste squinted
in reaction to pain.
"Sensors and scanalysers at max output," Kane ordered. "General sweep. Let's
head out on a nice straight course, slow and easy."
Both vessels crept through space at a crawl, barely five hundred kloms per
Page 106
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
hour. They eased through a long salient between two vast dust clouds that
towered like a pair of cosmic mountains and skirted nebular mists. A vast
sprawl of cinderlike debris stretched for millions of kloms.
Kane studied the vista on his tactical screen. The kilometers-wide ribbon of
cinder was fuzzy from
Outer Darkness
241
minute particles of cool hydrogen drift. The long-range infrascopes couldn't
get a clear reading.
Studying his scanners, Cotta said, "Cosmic dust, Commander. Some calcium and a
lot of silicon with a few heavier elements mixed in. However, there are rocks
the size of Mount Everest every million cubic kloms."
"If I wanted to lie in wait for any ship that might come through the gateway,
I'd hide in the drift. It fouls up sensors," Kane said thoughtfully.
Fand glanced his way. "Wouldn't it foul up theirs, too?"
"Not if a ship just hung in the filamentaries."
Grant said, "There's no point in guessing. We need to recce."
Domi's eyebrows rose. "Need to what?"
"Take a scout," Kane interposed smoothly. "Cotta, apprise Jozure what we're up
to. Tell him to take a flanking position. Have him use his long-range scanners
and we'll switch to short-range."
Under Domi's experienced hands, the
Sabre eased to the outer rim of the debris field, quartering the vague,
rock-clotted boundary between it and open space. Kane kept his eyes on his
tactical viewer, but there just wasn't anything to see but cindery rocks.
Larger particles hissed against the pulse shields, triggering the automatic
proximity alarms.
Jozure's voice filtered in over the comm-link. "Not a thing but hydrogen-drift
particulates so far.
Molecular, most of it."
The
Sabre continued on, her powerful short-range sensors probing in a deep search
program. Jozure chafed at the slow going.
"You know," spoke up Domi, "this region is re-
242
JAMES AXLER
ally not the best place to stage an ambush. Would Thrush risk his ship on the
off chance a
Commonwealth vessel came through the gateway?"
Kane and Grant exchanged glances. Kane said quietly, "If he thinks I may be
aboard, yes."
Domi gave him a skeptical look, but she said nothing more.
Suddenly, Cotta yelped like an excited terrier. "An infratrace hit!
Something's in there, all right. A
big something. Moving on a course parallel with ours."
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]