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"This is the end of the nonrotational shaft," Ian said,"assuming, of course,
that the blueprints are correct.
We clear this door and then enter the main rotating cylinder.Be careful as you
go through, you'll be a hundred andfifty meters up from the floor. If you push
off too rapidly,you'll float out into the center and it will be a pain to
getyou back. Just grab hold of the handrails and start to pullyourself down.
Watch how I
do it."
"Tell me, Dr. Lacklin," Ellen interjected with a playfultouch of malice, "how
much experience have you had doing this sort of thing?"
"None," he whispered, trying to cover the rush of fear.
He pulled the door release, and as it started to slideopen, he felt a moment
of panic. But the hatch slid quietlyback and there was a barely perceptible
rush of air as thepressure equalized. Ian gulped and pushed out.
It was stunning; beyond his wildest imaginings... and he was terrified.
The cylinder stretched on for nearly a kilometer, ver-dant with lush
semitropical growth. Broad bands of green alternated with narrow fields of
black, through which thereflected images of the stars shone in blazing
intensity.Illumination came from the opposite end of the cylinder, where a
battery of lights emitted a soft yellow glow thatbathed the world in a gentle
late-afternoon light. He lookeddown as he drifted out the doorway and a squeal
of terrorburst from his lips. He had the sensation of falling andthe wild
vertigo
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turned his stomach upside down. The network of handhold cables were all around
him and in desperation he snagged hold of one and hung on for dearlife.
Laughing, Shelley came up and grabbed hold alongsideof him.
"Do as you do, Dr. Lacklin," Shelley said teasingly,and she pushed herself off
the handhold and drifted overto the stairs that spiraled down along the
cylinder wall. He started to follow her.
Within the first fifty feet he started to detect a faint sense of gravity, but
Shelley still continued in a head-down direction, as if diving toward the
ground.
"Not too fast, Shelley," Ian called, as if advising anoverzealous child, "it
can be deceiving. Gravity will pickup significantly the farther we are from
the center of ro-tation."
He looked straight up and noticed that Ellen was com-ing down feet first,
still holding on to the handrailings.He liked the fact that she was
frightened; somehow itmade his own fear more palatable.
They passed the fifty-meter marker and now even Shel-ley was feet down and
using the steps. She was takingten steps at a bound, but at least she was
slowing down.
"Ian, look at that."
Ellen had stopped at the fifty-meter observation plat-form. He suddenly
realized that she had followed the rightcourse of action. They all should have
observed the sit-uation carefully before barging down to the cylinder floor.
"What is it?"
"First off, none of the structures down there seemsoccupied, they're all
overgrown. Second, I've yet to seea person. But third, look up overhead and
about halfwaydown the cylinder."
Ian leaned his head back and gazed up to where shewas pointing. It was a shock
to see the greenness directly above them, where a lifetime of conditioning had
taughthim that the sky should be located. He scanned the distantfloor for
several minutes before finally locating what shehad pointed out.
"It looks like smoke."
"Shelley, hold it up for a minute." He looked downand saw that she was
continuing on.
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"Shelley!"
She stopped, looked back up, and tapped the side ofher helmet to signal there
was something wrong with hertransceiver. Ian gestured for her to hold, but she
turnedand kept on going.
"She's full of crap," Ellen muttered.
"I know. Call it youthfulness. Something that you andI, my dear Ellen, have
started to leave behind."
"Maybe you, Doctor."
"All right, Ellen, all right, let's not get into an argu-ment."
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He fell silent and looked out over the expanse of greenthat had run riot
through the ship. His gaze drifted backup toward the smoke. Was it smoke or
condensation vent-ing from a broken pipe? And where were the people? Thesystem
was still running, almost the entire ship could beprogrammed to go on
automatic, but certain routine re-pairs definitely required human
intervention.
"Shall we go back up the other way and investigatethe smoke?" Ellen ventured.
"Seems a logical place to start."
He looked over the railing for Shelley, but she was nowhere in sight.
"Say, look, Shelley," Ian started, "don't give me thatcrap about a bad radio.
If we get back into the ship andI discover it to be working, I'm going to kick
your butt."
He stopped for a moment. An image of Shelley's back-side flashed in his mind
and suddenly, for the first time,it was an appealing backside. Naw, must be
the isolationof three months out, Ian thought.
"Shelley!"
His voice was suddenly cut off by a loud, piercingscream.
"Ian!"
"Shelley, what the hell is going on!"
"Ian!"
"Shelley. Shelley, what the hell?"
There was no response. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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