Genesis

the bridge at a time like this. 'Captain? What happened?'

Gloval paused at the hatch. 'Doctor Lang informs me that the fold system has vanished into thin air.'

The bridge gang let out stifled cries and moans; Sammie and Kim hugged each other, fighting back tears. Everyone there knew just as well as Gloval what that meant.

'We'll never get back,' Claudia whispered.

Outside the hatch, Gloval stopped to fire up his evil-smelling old briar. There was no point in doubting Lang's news; the man was obsessed with Robotechnology but otherwise quite rational. That left Henry Gloval to calculate matters of current orbital positions, distance, life support, and engine performance profiles.

He blew out a cloud of smoke, considering the tobacco in the pipe's bowl. I'd better cut down; what I have is going to have to last me quite a while.

'Hmm. Well now,' he said aloud. 'Gonna be a long trip.'

Fantastic as it seemed, Lang was right: The fold engines were gone.

Gloval returned to the bridge to try to salvage this seemingly hopeless situation as best he could.

'I don't know what happened exactly,' Gloval shouted into a handset. 'But our first priority is to get the civilians onboard this ship as soon as we can!'

He slammed down the handset and turned to his bridge gang. 'Well?'

'Captain, we can't raise the Daedalus or Prometheus,' Lisa told him.

His gaze went to the forward viewport. At a distance of a few hundred yards, the titantic shapes of the two supercarriers could be seen clearly amid the cloud of debris and wreckage, the drifting automobiles and furniture, and the more ghastly remains of human victims of the tragedy.

'They're aircraft carriers; all atmosphere would have bled away at once, as soon as the fold force field disappeared.' No one needed to be told what that meant; all hands lost in the wake of the jump, like every other unprotected human being. 'What a catastrophe!'

But other matters were too urgent for him to dwell on the horror of what those last few seconds must have been like in the supercarriers. Chances of survival and a safe return to Earth were slim, but it was up to him to make the most of them.

Like a handful of others throughout history, Henry Gloval was uniquely suited for this particular moment and situation. History was to record it as a singular stroke of good fortune for the human race.

'Commander Hayes, order a squadron of rescue vehicles to maneuver the carriers alongside the SDF-1. We will make fast to them and get crews working round the clock to make them airtight and operational once again.' He shunted aside the thought of what a grisly job the clean-up would be.

Lisa looked surprised. 'Captain, is it more important that we link up with them than with Armor One or Ten?'

'Yes. I believe their onboard weapons will still be functioning, and there are Veritechs onboard both of them.'

'I hope it works, Captain,' Lisa said.

'It must be done quickly,' Gloval added.

Claudia muttered, 'That's for sure.'

Gloval went to stand by the viewport. All those lives lost! How could I have been so stupid? But he knew, deep down, that he was being unfair to himself. He'd taken the only option open to him. If he'd chosen another course of action, the SDF-1 would now be in the hands of the alien invaders, and all would have been lost.

'We will also deploy boarding tubes to the shelters and begin transferring all occupants to the SDF-1,' he gave the order over his shoulder. 'Instruct Colonel Fielding and his staff to drop everything else and begin making temporary living arrangements for them at once. Detail EVE groups five and six to start salvage operations; tell them to bring in all usable materials, with special emphasis on foodstuffs and any water ice they may be able to find.'

The bridge gang hopped to it, taking notes, as the orders went on. Inventories of all resources; requirement and capability projections from all division chiefs; long-range scans for any signs of enemy presence or activity.

There was particular attention to that last item. They found us once, Gloval thought. Heaven help us if they do again.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

…- …

'SOS' signal attempted by various means by Rick Hunter

Far below the bridge and slightly aft, Rick Hunter strained against a hoisting line. Grease-stained and exhausted, he persisted, even though it seemed hopeless. Getting the wing patched back onto Mockingbird hadn't proved impossible-though he wasn't sure how long the patch would hold-but straightening the frame and repairing the fuselage had him near the limits of his endurance.

The racer still hung upside down, cables and lines looped under its wings, nose canards, and tail. He loved the ship, had built it by hand virtually from scratch; the idea of not saving it was hard to accept, and more important, he had reached the conclusion that it was the key to his and Minmei's survival.

They'd ended up in a portion of the ship that was completely deserted, unequipped with intercom or other communications gear or any indication as to how to get out. Rick had quickly decided that if he could just get his plane working, he could somehow get the armor patch to move, get back out into space, and reach a landing bay.

Minmei had less faith in the plan, but she'd been silent. Up to now. But she touched his shoulder as he strained against the line.

'Rick, you'll never get it to fly. Why don't we see if we can get some help by using the radio in your plane? It seems like it would be the easiest thing.'

He let go of the line tiredly. 'The radio got busted up when we landed. There are pieces of it all over the compartment: it'll never work.'

'Oh,' Minmei said in a small voice.

Rick reconsidered something that had been in the back of his mind. He held up his Heiko aviator's-model watch, switching modes. 'But maybe this'll help us get out of here.'

She came closer, watching. 'What've you got there?'

'An inertial tracker-a kind of a compass.'

Minmei looked puzzled. 'But I thought a compass had two arms that go back and forth?' She held her forefingers together to show what she meant.

'Huh? Oh!' Rick laughed.

Minmei looked hurt. 'Well, the only compass I ever saw was for drawing circles.'

They set out at once, Rick showing the way with a flashlight from his emergency equipment. 'With this kind of compass we'll be able to make our way back to Mockingbird if we get lost inside this big old tub and can't find a way out.'

They quickly found out that they were in a maze, a limitless world of conduits, cables, hull, passageways, ducts, and bulkheads. Their footsteps echoed eerily.

'I wonder what all these pipes are for?' Minmei said, reaching out to touch one.

'Maybe to cool some kind of energy unit.' Rick shrugged.

'Oh.' Then, 'Yow!' yelped Minmei, snatching her hand back, fingertips scalded.

'You okay?'

'Oh, I'm all right. It was just a little hot.'