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shake. "So few will look past the hawk."
His lips quirked once more.
"Hawk? I think not."
"Hawk," she affirmed. "A hawk with a heart too big for hunting, and a purpose
too vast not to."
He shrugged. "Hawk or not, poetic words or not, some have stood by you . . .
and will when I cannot. Will be for you alone, when I cannot."
"There is that."
"Then do not disregard it."
"I do as I please."
"Do as you please, Kiedra. Do as you please."
"Do I sound that awful?"
Gerswin had to grin at the mock-plaintive note in her, question.
"Not quite."
The lieutenant studied his grin and the forced twinkle in his eyes. After a
moment, she returned his expression with a smile.
"Should I laugh or cry?"
"Should I?"
"Both!"
The lieutenant followed her exclamation by throwing both arms around the
major, kissed him hard upon the lips, and dropped away as quickly as she had
struck.
"That's for what you've missed, and for treating me fairly. Not sure I wanted to
be treated fairly, and I reserve the right to reopen the question."
With that, she turned.
The major did not move as he watched her cross the last few meters and leave
the office, an office that felt barer than before.
He swallowed, then took a deep breath. His chest felt strangely tight, and he
inhaled deeply again, shaking his shoulders and trying to relax. His eyes felt hot,
not quite burning, but he blinked back the feeling, finally looking down at
Program Key Locks.
"Hope Lerwin appreciates her . . ."
His words sounded empty in the office, echoed coldly against the flat walls.
He sat and stared for a long time at the console screen.
Long after the echoes had died, long after the lieutenant had vanished, long
after, the index finger of his left hand touched the console keyboard.
He sighed once more, then resumed the work he had started what seemed ages
ago, before an early spring had come and gone in the space of a few afternoon
moments.
The red-headed lieutenant waved;
"Come on. Captain."
Gerswin smiled. The devilkids, as they trickled back to Old Earth, uniformly
referred to him as "Captain," for all that he wore the single gold triangle of an
I.S.S. major on his tunic collars or his flight suits.
The lieutenant waved again from the open hatchway of the dozer's armored
cockpit. "Come on."
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Click here to buy
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Gerswin broke into a quickstep for the remaining fifty meters across the
tarmac.
"Getting slower there. Captain."
Gerswin shook his head to dispute the fact, but grinned and said nothing as he
swung into the cockpit and closed the hatch behind him.
Lieutenant Glynnis MacCorson closed her own hatch and strapped in.
"Damned cargo run," she grumped.
"You still like it."
"You're'right. Since they didn't want any more flitter pilots, had to find
something else to run. Didn't matter if it was big and ugly."
She turned to the controls before her, controls more like a spacecraft than a
flitter.
"Everyone's aboard. Lieutenant." The tech peered into the cockpit through the
hatchway from the small passenger/cargo/ living section of the arcdozer.
"Stet, Nylan. Commencing power-up."
Gerswin watched, unspeaking, as she ran through the checklist which centered
on the fusactor powering the behemoth that could have swallowed an I.S.S.
corvette for breakfast and converted it into constituent elements.
"GroundOps, Dragon Two, departing for town. Estimate time en route one
point one."
"Understand time en route one point one. Geared for departure."
"Stet, Dragon Two on the run."
Gerswin shook his head. Speed the dozers weren't made for. The new town, as
yet unnamed by the transplanted sham-bletowners, the few retired teens, the
married Service techs, and the handful of immigrants, was less than ten kays
away, down a wide and hard-packed causeway with no turns. What would have
taken a minute or three by flitter was a major undertaking by dozer. But then,
dozers weren't normally used for transport, except on their way to and from
major refits at the base.
Before too long, Gerswin reflected, it might be worth the expense to set up a
forward maintenance facility, particularly as the dozer operations moved
eastward.
Dragon Two was carrying the back-up fusactor for the town. While it could
have been airiifted in sections by flitter, assembly was easier at the base, and the
arcdozer's slow and even speed made the transport practical.
Once the power source was deposited on its foundation, me structure and
distribution system would be completed around it.
Glynnis smiled happily as she checked the monitors, and as the dozer tracs
rumbled across the hard packed clay, compacting it still further.
Gerswin shifted his weight in the seat normally used by the senior tech and let [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl fopke.keep.pl
shake. "So few will look past the hawk."
His lips quirked once more.
"Hawk? I think not."
"Hawk," she affirmed. "A hawk with a heart too big for hunting, and a purpose
too vast not to."
He shrugged. "Hawk or not, poetic words or not, some have stood by you . . .
and will when I cannot. Will be for you alone, when I cannot."
"There is that."
"Then do not disregard it."
"I do as I please."
"Do as you please, Kiedra. Do as you please."
"Do I sound that awful?"
Gerswin had to grin at the mock-plaintive note in her, question.
"Not quite."
The lieutenant studied his grin and the forced twinkle in his eyes. After a
moment, she returned his expression with a smile.
"Should I laugh or cry?"
"Should I?"
"Both!"
The lieutenant followed her exclamation by throwing both arms around the
major, kissed him hard upon the lips, and dropped away as quickly as she had
struck.
"That's for what you've missed, and for treating me fairly. Not sure I wanted to
be treated fairly, and I reserve the right to reopen the question."
With that, she turned.
The major did not move as he watched her cross the last few meters and leave
the office, an office that felt barer than before.
He swallowed, then took a deep breath. His chest felt strangely tight, and he
inhaled deeply again, shaking his shoulders and trying to relax. His eyes felt hot,
not quite burning, but he blinked back the feeling, finally looking down at
Program Key Locks.
"Hope Lerwin appreciates her . . ."
His words sounded empty in the office, echoed coldly against the flat walls.
He sat and stared for a long time at the console screen.
Long after the echoes had died, long after the lieutenant had vanished, long
after, the index finger of his left hand touched the console keyboard.
He sighed once more, then resumed the work he had started what seemed ages
ago, before an early spring had come and gone in the space of a few afternoon
moments.
The red-headed lieutenant waved;
"Come on. Captain."
Gerswin smiled. The devilkids, as they trickled back to Old Earth, uniformly
referred to him as "Captain," for all that he wore the single gold triangle of an
I.S.S. major on his tunic collars or his flight suits.
The lieutenant waved again from the open hatchway of the dozer's armored
cockpit. "Come on."
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
Gerswin broke into a quickstep for the remaining fifty meters across the
tarmac.
"Getting slower there. Captain."
Gerswin shook his head to dispute the fact, but grinned and said nothing as he
swung into the cockpit and closed the hatch behind him.
Lieutenant Glynnis MacCorson closed her own hatch and strapped in.
"Damned cargo run," she grumped.
"You still like it."
"You're'right. Since they didn't want any more flitter pilots, had to find
something else to run. Didn't matter if it was big and ugly."
She turned to the controls before her, controls more like a spacecraft than a
flitter.
"Everyone's aboard. Lieutenant." The tech peered into the cockpit through the
hatchway from the small passenger/cargo/ living section of the arcdozer.
"Stet, Nylan. Commencing power-up."
Gerswin watched, unspeaking, as she ran through the checklist which centered
on the fusactor powering the behemoth that could have swallowed an I.S.S.
corvette for breakfast and converted it into constituent elements.
"GroundOps, Dragon Two, departing for town. Estimate time en route one
point one."
"Understand time en route one point one. Geared for departure."
"Stet, Dragon Two on the run."
Gerswin shook his head. Speed the dozers weren't made for. The new town, as
yet unnamed by the transplanted sham-bletowners, the few retired teens, the
married Service techs, and the handful of immigrants, was less than ten kays
away, down a wide and hard-packed causeway with no turns. What would have
taken a minute or three by flitter was a major undertaking by dozer. But then,
dozers weren't normally used for transport, except on their way to and from
major refits at the base.
Before too long, Gerswin reflected, it might be worth the expense to set up a
forward maintenance facility, particularly as the dozer operations moved
eastward.
Dragon Two was carrying the back-up fusactor for the town. While it could
have been airiifted in sections by flitter, assembly was easier at the base, and the
arcdozer's slow and even speed made the transport practical.
Once the power source was deposited on its foundation, me structure and
distribution system would be completed around it.
Glynnis smiled happily as she checked the monitors, and as the dozer tracs
rumbled across the hard packed clay, compacting it still further.
Gerswin shifted his weight in the seat normally used by the senior tech and let [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]