Saucer

The saucer responded to every twitch of her hands and feet. Never had she felt this wonderful, felt such a feeling of command.

'Too cool for school. But how are you going to land this thing?'

'Uh… '

Before she could say another word, the sound of the rocket engines died; they felt a decelerating force push them forward.

'We're outta water,' Rip said bitterly. 'Keep flying, keep flying!' he quickly added. 'This thing is going like a bullet. Lower your nose just a tad to level flight and hold it there while we decelerate.'

'I know how to fly, Junior.'

'Just trying to do my bit.'

'The saucer is glowing,' she reported. By craning her neck, Charley could just see a bit of the fuselage.

'I think that glow is from the landing lights.'

Charley Pine's mind was racing. She studied the displays on the computer screen. The graphics were alive. One of them must display angle of attack or relative airspeed, margin above stalling speed, something like that. Which one?

Perhaps… She reached up and touched the button like protrusions that surrounded the main screen. Yes. Each button produced a different graphic on a small segment of the screen.

She quickly found what appeared to be an analog display of angle of attack. Suddenly sure, she told Rip, 'I'll fly this,' and explained how the needle on the screen would give her the best gliding angle. 'When that needle gets to about this position,' she pointed with her fingertip, 'I'll hold it there by adjusting the nose attitude. Or try to, anyway.'

'And if you can't?'

Charley swallowed hard. The magnitude of the task before her hit her like a hammer. She had been a damned fool to try to fly this thing. Now she was going to kill herself and this idiot kid. She had trouble swallowing.

'Relax,' Rip said, squeezing her hand. 'You got us this far.'

'You're crazy!'

Rip laughed. At a time like this, he laughed!

'This thing will glide like a brick,' he told her. 'It's a lifting body, but the sink rate is going to be spectacular.' He checked the position of the lever to the left of the pilot's seat. 'Better lower that.' He pointed. 'It works the antigravity rings, and we're going to need all the help they can give us to cushion our descent at the bottom.'

Tears trickled down Charley's cheeks. She swabbed at them with her left hand while she kept her eyes moving between the artificial horizon and the angle of attack presentation.

'We're way high up,' she said when she finally trusted herself to talk. 'It's going to take us a long time to coast down.'

'Not as long as you think. Believe me.'

I'll bet this thing has radar,' she suggested.

Rip began playing with the other computer displays. One computer hung half out of the panel, partially disassembled. There were three others. Luck being what it is, Rip was sure the radar display was probably presented on the computer that Harry and his mate had operated on.

He felt the nose dip. Heard the hiss of gas being ejected from the maneuvering jets as Charley moved the control stick. Now he understood the system: gaseous oxygen and hydrogen had been automatically stored so the pilot could control the machine with the rocket engines off, as she would have to do to rendezvous with a mother ship in orbit.

There, a radar presentation! Amid the sea of return was a black ribbon angling left and up. That would be the Nile.

'I've got it, but I don't know the scale.'

'We're coming down pretty fast,' Charley said in a worried voice.

He checked. Almost ten degrees nose down on the artificial horizon.

'Look for lights along the river. The river's out there, all right. We're aiming straight for the southern end of Lake Nasser.'

'Lights

'Little towns along the river. Villages.'

'There,' Charley Pine said, relief evident in her voice, I'll steer for that.' She consulted the radar presentation.

That bright spot along the riverbank… that could be the town. She looked again through the canopy, examined the radar presentation one more time.

'Are we high enough?' he asked Charley. She knew what he meant, which was, Can we glide that far?

'Jesus, I hope so,' she told him and inadvertently waggled the control stick.

'I wouldn't do that,' Rip told her nervously as he braced himself against the twitching of the saucer. 'The gas in the reservoirs for the maneuvering jets must be oxygen or hydrogen from the water. When it runs out, we'll have no way to control this thing.'

Charley had an almost overpowering urge to urinate. She fought it back.

The lights of the town were coming rapidly closer. The gliding saucer rapidly closed the distance at a velocity of four hundred knots true.

They crossed over the town several miles above it. It was on the Nile, the southern end of Lake Nasser, so Rip had Charley turn to the northeast to fly along the lake. 'We'll have to land beside it regardless of obstacles.'

Charley's head bobbed.

'When you near the ground, level off. As our speed bleeds off, lift up on the collective, that left-hand lever. Those antigravity rings will keep us airborne, I hope. Keep flying the saucer with the control stick and the rudder. Pick a flat place near the water and bring us down gently.'

Charley nodded again. Her head just kept bobbing up and down.

'Can you do this, Charley?'

More head bobbing.

'I'd feel better if you said something to me, Charley. Anything.'

She glanced at him. Her face was white. She was too scared to say anything. It was written all over her face.

Rip kissed her on the lips. 'Thanks for the ride, babe.'

'Better' — she cleared her throat explosively — 'better sit down and strap in.'

Charley Pine stared into the darkness ahead. She could see… absolutely nothing.

No, wait! There was a light, reflecting on water. A boat.

Too low!

She pulled back sharply on the control stick and up on the collective. The G's mashed her into the seat as the nose rose.

Oh, too much, too much!

She felt the ship shudder… the edge of a stall… rammed the stick forward… pulled the collective toward her armpit, as high as it would go. She knew she was grossly over controlling, but what choice did she have?

The earth appeared suddenly in the landing lights; quick as thought she lifted the nose sharply, although not as precipitously as the first time.

The saucer leveled, then the nose dipped and the landing lights revealed the ground racing to meet her. She pulled the stick as far back as it would go.

The saucer hit something a glancing blow that threw it back into the air.

Still slowing, the ship would have crashed were it not for the antigravity rings, which prevented contact with the earth. Once again the saucer seemed to carom off an invisible rail.

A cliff appeared dead ahead in the landing lights.

She had no time to think. She dropped the collective, slammed the stick and rudder to the left. The saucer hit the earth, bounced once, then stayed on the ground.

Rip lost his grip on the pilot's seat. The deceleration slammed him forward onto the instrument panel. He went out like a light.