She glanced around at all of them. “Seven members, seven races. The Wars of the Well are over at last.”
Aboard the New Harmony Shuttle
It took four days to raise, position, and lock in the ship, and another two were required for Yulin to check out the systems. Some vital power systems had discharged over the years, but were easily replenished by Bozog technicians. The craft was banged up, but a lot less so than the engineer would have believed. It needed a bit of internal work, but the engines and command computer needed only reenergized secondary systems to come to life again. The atmosphere of Uchjin had preserved everything marvelously.
The ship had been designed for humans. This presented little problem to Yulin or Renard, and neither the Yugash nor the Bozog required much, but the bulk and odd shapes of Mavra and Wooley presented real difficulties, and Vistaru’s wings could not be pressed into a seat for long without damage. Tearing out some seats in the passenger compartment and replacing them with heavy cushions held down by wide belts solved the larger problems, and Vistaru decided she could live strapped on her stomach for a time.
Yulin spent another day assisted by Mavra—who seemed to be taking some interest in things again— checking out computer operation, programming, and control functions. Both were extremely rusty, but they soon found that their remembered abilities were complementary. Between them they could probably work out what was necessary.
“I still wish we had somebody who has done this recently,” Yulin told her worriedly. “Damn! After a twenty- two-year layoff, we’re going to program this ship through a series of maneuvers beyond half the pilots we ever knew! I’m damn sure
“Second thoughts?” she taunted. “I can always have Renard follow my instructions, you know.”
He laughed. “No, I’ve come too far and waited too long for this. I’ll go or die.”
“Or both,” she responded dryly.
In two days New Pompeii would be in the proper position and the proper code words Mavra Chang knew for the robot sentinels would come up. They’d go.
“Initial test, two percent thrust!” Ben Yulin broadcast to ground control and throughout the ship. He flipped a switch. A satisfying whine and vibration were the response. He held the power at that setting for four seconds. The instruments showed steady output to less than a thousandth of a percent, then cut back.
“Initial test on the nose,” he reported. “Give me lift data.”
A Bozog voice crackled back at him. “On our count, switch to internal at one hundred; build up at ten percent per decade count on our mark. Release restraints at the ten mark. Full boost on automatic within one second of our count. Link and synchronize.”
“On my mark… one hundred,” Yulin said crisply.
“Hold to our mark. Linkage established. Switch to internal. Mark one hundred.”
Yulin punched a board. “Internal link, aye. Thrust ten at ninety.” Slowly, eyes on the instrument panel, he flipped a series of switches. “Fifty-one at fifty, go,” he told the control.
“Down, area cleared, all restraint away, thirty,” replied the Bozog.
“Seventy-two at thirty,” Yulin responded. “Stand by.”
“Ninety at ten.”
“Ninety at ten coming up. Mark!”
“Ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one… full boost!” called the Bozog launch control.
Yulin pulled back on a long lever. He didn’t have time to think, which was good.
He was scared to death.
They felt a sudden impact, as if some huge thing had struck the ship, and a tremendous, crushing weight on them.
Mavra was in the prone position to absorb shock. Not designed to lie down, she blacked out in seconds; Wooley was not far behind. The others remained conscious although all, even the Ghiskind, were tremendously uncomfortable.
Yulin, pressed back into his seat so hard he could feel the metal support fifty centimeters behind, watched the controls wide-eyed. It was out of his hands now and up to the computer.
An eternity passed, and the pressure on him was unbearable. He fought with himself to keep from blacking out, even as he watched the displays, unblinking, fearful. The sequencing timer seemed to crawl, the seconds ticking off in slow motion. Forty-six… forty-seven…
He knew he was going to die now. He would never survive the eternity until that clock reached sixty-one, he was sure.
And then, finally, it hit sixty and seemed to hover there for the longest time. It flipped, and the thrust was reduced. Even though he was ready for it, the sensation of sudden release, like falling over a precipice, caught him by surprise, propelling him forward. The restraints bit into him.
He sighed, looked over at the screens. They were still heading outward, into deep space. The indicator showed an altitude of over one hundred kilometers and climbing.
They had made it.
The screens flipped on. The group wasn’t out of the woods yet, he knew. Now he had to take the ship to high orbit, loop, and approach New Pompeii, making certain that at no point in his initial approach did he fall to within eighty kilometers of the surface. The ship swung around. The console screen showed the Well World, projected trajectories, and the ship’s current position. A string of figures ran down one side, constantly changing, showing the computer working to put them in the preplanned slot.
He activated the intercom. “Everyone okay?”
“Some bruises, and Mavra and Wooley are out cold, but I think we all came through,” Renard replied.
Yulin turned his attention to the controls. They had made orbital insertion while he talked, and were only a few kilometers per hour from the optimum and less than a fifth of a degree off-orbit. Easily correctable, and he told the computer to make the adjustments.
The large screen came on, providing a remarkably detailed picture of what was ahead. The Well World filled most of the area below them, and, as he watched, New Pompeii rose. He would make one pass as a check before going final approach.
On the screen, columns of figures shot by at speeds barely slow enough to read, and graphics showed angle, speed, and destination. The computer was locking in for Phase Two.
But the critical human element was gone now. It was the computer’s job to follow the carefully programmed instructions and do all the work. The passengers could only hope that the systems would continue to function as well as they had so far.
“How’s it going back there?” Yulin asked over the intercom.
“All right now,” Vistaru’s soft voice answered. “We have Wooley back with us again, and we’ve undone Mavra’s straps and got her to her feet. That’s all right, isn’t it?”
“Fine,” he responded. “There will be only slight motion problems now that the ship’s in its element. We’re braking over North Zone, and the screens say it’s a perfect intercept. All we can do is watch and wait.”
“On track,” Yulin announced. “Locked in. All right, people. Hold on. Here we go.”
The big screen showed the Well World, ship, and New Pompeii clearly. Small dotted lines indicated the ideal and actual trajectories. The multicolor graphics were of no use to Yulin’s color-blind eyes, but he knew which trajectory was which by the pattern of characters that composed each curve. He felt slight jerking motions as the computer adjusted speed and direction. Slowly but steadily the two traces were merging into a single perfect flight path.
Suddenly the radio popped on.
“Code, please,” a mechanical voice demanded pleasantly. “Correct code within sixty seconds or we will
