JК
World Of Ptavvs :: Нивен Ларри
Страница: 81 из 127Neptune was a blue-green ball, dim in the faint sunlight. Usually a world that close is awe-inspiring, if not blinding. This world only looked terribly cold.
"There it is. What'll I do with it?"
"Put us in a search orbit and start scanning with the radar. Can you set it to search for something as dense as dwarf star matter?"
"You mean, set it to search below the crust? Will do, Captain."
"Anderson?"
"Uh huh?" He was already at work on the instrument panel.
"You will remember that we have a time limit?"
Anderson grinned at him. "I can put this thing in a forced orbit and finish the search in five hours. Okay?"
"Great." Luke started punching for breakfast.
"There's just one thing. We'll be in free fall some of the time. Can you take it?"
"Sure."
Anderson moved in. When he finished, the ship balanced nose down, one thousand miles above the surface, driving straight at the planet with a force of more or less one gee. The "more or less" came from Anderson's constant read justments.
"Now don't worry," Anderson told him. "I'm trying keep us out of the atmosphere, but if we do happen to land in the soup all I have to do is turn off the motor. The motor is all that's holding us in this tight orbit. We'd fall straight up into outer space."
"So that's what a forced orbit is. How are you working the search?"
"Well, on a map it would look like I'm following lines of longitude. I'll turn the ship sideways for a few minutes every time we cross a pole, so we can keep changing our line of search. We can't just let the planet turn under us. It would take almost sixteen hours."
The world rolled beneath them, one thousand miles below- more or less. There was faint banding of the atmosphere, but the predominant color was bluish white. Anderson kept the radar sweeping at and below the ward horizon, which on the radar screen looked like stratified air. It was solid rock.
"Understand, this is just to find out if it's there," Anderson said an hour later. "If we see a blob, we'll have pinned within five hundred miles. That's all."
"That's all we need."
At nine hours Anderson turned the ship around, facing outward. He ached from shoulders to fingertips. "It's not there," he said wearily. "Now what?"
"Now we get ready for a fight. Get us headed toward Nereid and turn off the drive."
The bright stars that were two fusion-drive spacecraft were too close to the tiny Sun to be easily seen. Anderson couldn't even find the Golden Circle.
"There it is. What'll I do with it?"
"Put us in a search orbit and start scanning with the radar. Can you set it to search for something as dense as dwarf star matter?"
"You mean, set it to search below the crust? Will do, Captain."
"Anderson?"
"Uh huh?" He was already at work on the instrument panel.
"You will remember that we have a time limit?"
Anderson grinned at him. "I can put this thing in a forced orbit and finish the search in five hours. Okay?"
"Great." Luke started punching for breakfast.
"There's just one thing. We'll be in free fall some of the time. Can you take it?"
"Sure."
Anderson moved in. When he finished, the ship balanced nose down, one thousand miles above the surface, driving straight at the planet with a force of more or less one gee. The "more or less" came from Anderson's constant read justments.
"Now don't worry," Anderson told him. "I'm trying keep us out of the atmosphere, but if we do happen to land in the soup all I have to do is turn off the motor. The motor is all that's holding us in this tight orbit. We'd fall straight up into outer space."
"So that's what a forced orbit is. How are you working the search?"
"Well, on a map it would look like I'm following lines of longitude. I'll turn the ship sideways for a few minutes every time we cross a pole, so we can keep changing our line of search. We can't just let the planet turn under us. It would take almost sixteen hours."
The world rolled beneath them, one thousand miles below- more or less. There was faint banding of the atmosphere, but the predominant color was bluish white. Anderson kept the radar sweeping at and below the ward horizon, which on the radar screen looked like stratified air. It was solid rock.
"Understand, this is just to find out if it's there," Anderson said an hour later. "If we see a blob, we'll have pinned within five hundred miles. That's all."
"That's all we need."
At nine hours Anderson turned the ship around, facing outward. He ached from shoulders to fingertips. "It's not there," he said wearily. "Now what?"
"Now we get ready for a fight. Get us headed toward Nereid and turn off the drive."
The bright stars that were two fusion-drive spacecraft were too close to the tiny Sun to be easily seen. Anderson couldn't even find the Golden Circle.