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He brushed Matsuko's hands from the console.
"Interrogative altitude, airspeed."
"Passing four hundred at one hundred." The woman's voice was low, but clear
and steady.
"Nose up. Nose up, three. Airspeed at sixty to seventy as you pass two
hundred."
"Stet. Nose up. Passing two fifty, airspeed, eighty."
"Nose down a shade."
"Stet. Nose down. Speed seventy."
"Flare at one fifty. Flare at one fifty."
"Flaring-" The transmission ended as if cut by a knife.
Gerswin stood so abruptly the swivel slammed and clattered into the console
behind.
"Was that a transmission loss?" asked a new voice.
Gerswin shook his head, slowly, forcing himself to unclench his tightened
fists. He looked at the two console screens, then at the floor.
Matsuko looked at Gerswin's face, then snapped. "Is two ready to lift?"
"Yes, ser."
"Launch and vector to three's last position. Medic on board?"
"That's affirmative, ser."
"Launch."
"Two. Outrider two, this is Opswatch. Cleared to lift. Vector to target is
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three four five.
Three four five."
"Opswatch, Outrider two, lifting. Will be turning three four five."
Gerswin looked at the met screen, then at Matsuko.
"Captain, that vector's wrong. They'll cross the sheer line."
The tech on the end console began computing.
"He's right."
"Outrider two. Course correction. Course correction. Sheer line at three five
zero. Turn two seven zero. Two seven zero."
"Thanks, Opswatch. Turning two seven zero. How long this course?"
"Outrider two. Estimate five minutes, then a vector of zero zero five."
"Stet. Turning two seven zero. Climbing to one thousand. Climbing to one
thousand."
"Understand climbing to one thousand."
Gerswin took his eyes away from the screens and stepped farther back, still
shaking his head slowly, as if unable to believe that the flitter had crashed
into the rocky flats northwest of the
Imperial base.
"... killer planet . . . Istvenn take it. ..."
"... the lieutenant couldn't ... no one could have ..."
Gerswin's steps took him to the backless couch outside Matsuko's office, and
he sat down, staring at nothing, trying not to think about how Miri Frantz
must have felt as the flitter mashed into the rocky upthrusts with both
forward speed and a descent rate approaching a thousand meters a minute.
But what else could he have suggested? Leaving her on thrusters would have
plowed her into solid rock at nearly two hundred kays. If only he'd tried to
get a better reading on the actual terrain slope. ... But there had been so
little time.
If he'd been there. . . . But he wouldn't have flown through a sheer line
unprepared.
". . . have the target in sight . . ."
Gerswin's ears caught the transmission from Outrider two, and he jerked
himself erect, walking back to the control area, standing quietly behind the
swivel where Captain Matsuko sat.
"Understand you have the target in sight?"
"That's affirmative. Deploying blades now."
"Stet. Understand blade deployment."
The console was silent, with only a single amber blip, motionless, as the
flitter began its descent.
"Interrogative target status."
"Opswatch. Target has sustained maximum structural damage. Maximum structural
damage."
Matsuko winced. Gerswin and the other pilots understood the implications of
the shorthand expression.
Maximum structural damage to the flitter meant maximum structural damage to
the crew.
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A hush dropped over the operations area, as the surrounding techs and officers
waited.
"Opswatch. Hovering over target. Lowering medic. Preliminary indication is
that target crew totally immobile. Totally immobile. Will report later."
"Stet, three. Standing by for later report."
Gerswin took a last glance at the screens and moved away until he was in the
silent and open corridor between the comm consoles and the now-vacant
administrative section of Operations.
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He knew the results, but hoped against hope that someone, somehow, had
survived the crash, even though flitters did not carry the same crash capsules
as shuttles.
The muted sound of murmurs in the control section died away enough that
Gerswin could hear the last of Outrider two's transmission.
"... say again, no survivors ..."
The I.S.S. lieutenant took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and started
toward the exit portal. He needed to be alone.
Ignoring the sound of steps behind him, he reached the portal before Matsuko
touched his arm.
Gerswin stopped.
Matsuko gestured, as if to pull him aside, and the lieutenant followed.
"Greg. You did the best you could, the best anyone could have."
Gerswin swallowed.
"I made a mistake. Wouldn't have if I'd been in the cockpit, but so hard to do
through comm link."
"Mistake?"
"Radalt has vertical and horizontal lag. Makes a difference in rugged terrain.
She wasn't experienced enough to look beyond the heads-up to gauge terrain.
Can't do that over remote."
He shook his head again.
Matsuko shook his head slowly in reply. "I liked Zeigler, and . . . Miri . . .
you know . . .
but, you . . . Can't you not ..."
Gerswin looked at the polished tiles of the floor, knowing Matsuko had broken
off his response and was studying his face.
"Look, Greg. Nobody else could have given her half a chance."
"Half wasn't enough."
"No. But unless you can find another dozen like you, it's better than she
would have gotten otherwise. Zeigler bent orbit, not you. You even had enough
sense to keep the recovery bird from doing the same thing. Don't forget that."
Gerswin said nothing.
Matsuko patted him on the shoulder.
"You try too hard to be perfect. Do the best you can, but don't expect
perfection on everything, all the time, even when lives are at stake. That's a
bigger trap. Think about it."
Matsuko stepped back to let Gerswin leave.
Gerswin could feel the deputy ops boss's eyes on his back long after the
portal had closed between them, long after he had retreated to his quarters.
Chapter XXIV
"Tell me, Greg. Does the flitter do what you want? Or do you make it do what
you want?"
Mahmood scarcely looked up from his console as he asked the question.
"What does that mean? Another theoretical question?" snapped Gerswin, still
wearing his flight gear.
"Not so theoretical as you think. Presumably, you have a goal in mind. You
seem to assume that the goal is independent of the means."
"No. Even a dumb devilkid knows that the means will influence the end." The
pilot took four steps away from the console, turned, and paced back toward the
biologist.
"Then why don't you apply that knowledge to your flight techniques? Without
looking at the maintenance records, I'd be willing to bet that while you have
the best record-- of accomplishment, you also have the record of most damage
to equipment."
"Mahmood, have you ever tried to fly gently through the fringes of a
landspout? Or to gather data through stone rains and acid winds?"
"Have you?"
"I've flown through everything."
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"Gently?"
"You don't understand."
"Greg. I'm not fighting you. You are fighting yourself."
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"Fighting myself?" Gerswin paced toward the blank inner wall, and turned
before reaching it, pacing back toward the man and the console. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]