[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

the river.
Lyra stood on the foredeck alongside Tyl, executing with him the Tsla
posture of good-bye. The song of farewell was beginning to fade with distance
when Lyra turned and called to her husband. "Don't you think that's enough?
Let's move." He made a face up at her. Suddenly she was concerned.
"What do you think I'm trying to do?"
She pressed her face to the plexalloy. "What do you mean you're trying?"
They were accelerating steadily, but in the wrong direction. Only the boat's
internal stabilizers kept them from spinning in helpless circles like a leaf
caught in a flash flood.
"Everything's functioning except the intake feed."
"Dammit!" She rushed for the nearest gangway.
As she looked aft she saw the canyon narrowing further behind them,
forming the immense granitic funnel which Etienne had theorized constituted
the upper limits of the To-papasirut. In the distance and coming rapidly
closer she could make out thickening mist and the first faint, threatening
rum-ble of water attacking rock. She dropped through the gang-way and in
seconds stood alongside her husband.
"Everything checks out, everything. Except the intake feed. Every time I
try to open her wide she locks shut on me.
"Emergency override?"
"Forget it. I'm still trying, though."
"Repellers?"
"No way. We used our stored power during the descent from Jakaie. We need
time to recharge or else we can re-charge by moving Upriver. Of course, if we
could move Upriver we wouldn't hoed to recharge." He worked rapidly at the
diagnostic computer, canceling unhelpful replies to his queries.
Unfortunately, those were the only type of reply he could extract.
The rumbling astern was becoming thunder. Dense mist enveloped the narrow
cleft of the canyon. He switched the stern scanner to sonic and tridee
black-and-white graphics appeared on the screen as ultrasound penetrated the
ob-scuring mist. In a very few minutes the currant would slam the helpless
boat into the unyielding sheer cliff that was the upside-down waterfall, the
Page 134
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Topapasirut. Fragments of the hydrofoil would boil out of the orator
Downriver, to be wondered at by any Mai who encountered them on nameless
beaches. Of the crew there would be only a memory. Nothing so fragile as flush
and blood would survive the coming con-cussion.
The boat was enveloped ire a storm as the river rained toward the sky.
"Do something!" Lyra shouted above the crash of the water.
"Do something yourself!"
She eyed him a moment before turning to disappear be-low. Her voice
reached him via the engine room intercom.
"Everything looks okay. The fuel cells are produc-
"I can see that on the readout!"
"Just letting you know what I see down here. The engine's quiet, and-wait
a minute."
"That's about what we've got left." The boat vibrated anxiously beneath
his feet. Would they know when they hit the cliff? He couldn't begin to
calculate their velocity.
"Try it now!" Lyra ordered him.
He ran numbly through the restart procedure, was startled when the
_Function_ light turned green. He stabbed the accelerator, bringing thrust up
to maximum.
For an eternity they hung motionless in the vortex, sus-pended in fog
between open water and oblivion. Then very slowly the hydrofoil began to creep
Upriver. To Etienne their progress seemed infinitesimal. His anxiety was
heightened by the knowledge that whatever had shut down the flow of water to
the jet once could do so again at any moment. Gradually their velocity
increased to the point where the boat could rise up on its hydrofoils. As the
river fell away beneath the hull, relinquishing its grasp, they started to
make some real speed. Thunder faded behind them.
As they left the mist Lyra emerged from belowdecks. Her hair was strung
like paint across her face, alternating with rivulets of sweat. She stank of
Skar.
"What did you do down there?" He spoke without looking at her, refusing
to take his eyes off the controls lest something else fail before they were
out of danger.
"Emergency surgery." She slumped into a seat. "Very complicated." She
held up something in her right hand. As he turned to look he saw that she was
wearing heavy-duty insulated work gloves.
A half dozen glistening worms twisted in her grip. They had dark heads.
"These were glued to the conduit just above the main feed to the jet.
Watch this." She hold up a small diagnostic probe with her left hand, touched
it to the tail of one worm. A loud buzzing filled the cockpit and the readout
on the front of the tool went berserk. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]