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Gerswin shook his head.
"Not sure I understand, Markin."
"Simple, ser. The thruster blades and the mounts are heat sensitive. Cold
now . . . they are. That's why the blades are loose. If you shook the engine
without the seal ring in place, every one would fall out.
"While you were taking out the second blade, I switched blades and used a
lasetorch on the one I gave you to heat it up. That's what happens when you
light off. As the thruster speed builds, the heat increases, blades tighten.
"Now, before we forget, would you pull the one you put in?"
Gerswin was tempted to pull the wrong one out of perversity, until he
remembered he might be the one flying with the flawed blade. He handed the
substitute, which had cooled enough to slide out easily, to Markin, who
examined it with the scopelike instrument.
"Stet. Right one, or should I say wrong one," grunted the tech. "Here's the
right one. Want to put it in?"
"If you don't mind."
"Go ahead. You're the pilot who'll fly it."
Gerswin tried to insure that the blade was seated correctly and identically
to the others.
He felt relieved when Markin inspected his work with the instrument and
rechecked the retaining seal. As he waited while Markin reclosed the tech
access panel and then the preflight panel, he let his eyes run over the smooth
finish of the flitter, admiring the way in which the techs had managed to
return it to flying condition time after time.
"Lieutenant, the question is: Did you get the point?"
"Markin, I'm just a dumb pilot. Can see the reason for care. If something
got inside the housing once the thruster heated up, you would get increased
stress on both blade and housing. Enough to cause a fracture?"
"Lieutenant, I'll give you half. You might make a better tech than a pilot.
That's the tech answer."
Gerswin shook his head. What was the pilot answer?
Markin smiled.
"Lieutenant, what happens if you're in a hurry and feed full power to that
thruster before the blades have heated up?"
Gerswin almost pulled at his chin with the gloves still on his hands, then
jerked his left hand away, realizing that his skin was damp and not wanting to
contaminate the gloves.
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"Oh . . . Sorry, Markin. Not thinking clearly. If the blades aren't tight,
they'd vibrate. Could that vibration snap them at the base?" .
"They're probably stronger than that," answered the tech, "but if you had
some that had already been stressed by too many full power cold starts, you
could throw at least one. And if it let loose at the wrong angle, you'd lose
the whole thruster."
Gerswin shivered.
"Would it go through the housing?"
"Never seen that. The composite is tough. A loose blade could bounce back
into the fuel line sprays."
This time Gerswin nodded slowly.
"Guess I've got a lot to leam, Markin." s,
"You're young. Lieutenant. You got time. Especially here, you have time."
Gerswin nodded again, slowly pulling the thin thermal gloves off from the
wrist backward, careful not to touch the outside surfaces.
"See you tomorrow. Lieutenant."
"Tomorrow, Markin," agreed the pilot.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow.
Chapter XXVII
Gerswin recognized Captain Carfoos. The last time he had seen the rail-thin
officer with the limp brown hair had been outside the Gates of Hades, when
both the commandant and Carfoos had assumed that Gerswin was a sentry.
At the recollection, Gerswin repressed a snort.
"Major Hylton is waiting. Go on in, Lieutenant."
Gerswin wondered at the tone of the captain's voice, which mirrored
indifference or resignation. Gerswin seldom saw Carfoos, and could not tell
what the flat inflections meant.
"Yes, ser."
The major was alone.
"Sit down, Lieutenant."
Gerswin took the armchair across the console from the major.
"We have a problem. Lieutenant. Not a major one, but one of which the
commandant and I felt you should be apprised, since you were in at the
beginning."
"Something to do with the black gates into the mountain?"
The major nodded. "The Gates to Hades, as they are popularly called around
the base." He cleared his throat. "We had hoped to find some material, some
artifacts, which might give us an insight into pre-Federation high technology,
particularly into the composition of that nuclear bonding metal.
"We were successful, in a way. We did get an insight."
Major Hylton motioned to the junior officer.
"Come over here. Lieutenant, where you can see the screen."
The major moved his swivel to one side. Gerswin stood and moved around the
console to the major's left.
"Watch. We found one operating console, but it was locked-except to provide
the following message. After we copied the message-you'll see and hear it in a
minute we tried to analyze both the console and the message, but when we
opened the console, which took a stepped-up cutting laser, it triggered some
sort of destruct circuitry that none of our scans had even revealed. The whole
thing melted down."
The major frowned and looked back at his screen. "So did everything else. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]