FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   >>  
s way out into the corridor, his unwieldy package hanging to his shoulder and runlets of water making a trail behind him--and stepped into the nearby emergency lock. In the lock he quickly donned one of the emergency spacesuits that hung there, gathered up his bundle again, and stepped out on the catwalk of the inner part of the rim, under the brilliant night sky at the moment, but turning towards its "sunrise." He opened his plastic package. "Major Elbertson," he said, turning on the Security radio, "you now have five minutes to surrender." Attaching his suit to the guideline nearby, part of the rim's "hairnet," he crept out over the inside edge of the rim. From this position he had a full view of the glowing bubble that was Hot Rod for the few seconds until the movement of the rim took him past the "sunrise" point and turned him sunwards. Last time Mike had been out on the rim, the wheel had not been turning. There'd been no reference of up and down, other than the rim itself as an oddly curved floor. Now he felt disoriented. The wheel was spinning, the hub, therefore, seemed "up." And from the edge of the rim where he clung to its hairnet, all directions were down. * * * * * The stars seemed to sweep beneath his feet and over his head; and though it was a slow pattern, only twice as fast as the crawl of a second hand around the face of a clock, it was, nevertheless, disorienting. Bracing himself carefully into the net, with his back wedged firmly against the rim, he adjusted his bizarre "gun" to rest on his knees so that he could sight in the direction that was, to his body's senses, straight down. Not at all, he thought, like trying to shoot fish in a barrel. More like being the fish and trying to shoot the people outside the barrel. Back in the shadow again. Not really shadow where he sat, but the rim around him, below him, and curving away from him, had disappeared in its brief nightside, and there came Hot Rod again. Carefully he tracked it; then putting his eye to the scope he focused briefly on one of the high-pressure supporting tubes that formed the rigid structure from which the aiming mirror was held in place. And fired. The tube burst, noiselessly but quite spectacularly. And the mirror itself shuddered shook, as the tube's gases escaped. Now he was in bright sunlight again, quickly closing his eyes as the sun itself looked full into his vision, an
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   >>  



Top keywords:
turning
 

barrel

 
shadow
 

sunrise

 
hairnet
 

mirror

 

emergency

 
stepped
 

nearby

 

quickly


package
 

senses

 

straight

 

disorienting

 

Bracing

 
thought
 

adjusted

 
bizarre
 
firmly
 

wedged


carefully

 

direction

 

noiselessly

 

aiming

 

formed

 

structure

 

spectacularly

 

shuddered

 

looked

 

vision


closing
 

sunlight

 

escaped

 
bright
 

supporting

 

curving

 

disappeared

 

people

 
nightside
 
focused

briefly

 

pressure

 
Carefully
 

tracked

 

putting

 

curved

 

Security

 

Elbertson

 

opened

 

plastic