DOTLAN EveMaps

intending to do, Kraiklyn, but whatever it is, we're as ready as we'll ever be
to do it.' The stout engineer looked across at Horza, lifted himself slightly
from his seat and pulled the restraining straps over his body. Horza grinned
at him, trying to look confident. His own seat's restrainers were a little
more sophisticated, and he just had to throw a switch for cushioned arms to
swing over and inertia fields to come on. He pulled his helmet over his head
from the hinged position and heard it hiss shut.
'Oh my God,' Wubslin said, looking slowly away from Horza to stare at the
almost featureless rear wall of the Smallbay shown on the main screen. 'I sure
as hell hope you're not going to do what I think you are.
Horza didn't reply. He hit the button to talk to the mess. 'All right?'
'Just about, Kraiklyn, but - ' Yalson said. Horza killed that circuit, too. He
licked his lips, took the controls in his gloved hands, sucked in a deep
breath, then flicked the thumb buttons on the CAT's three fusion motors. Just
before the noise started he heard Wubslin say:
'Oh, my God, you are - '
The screen flashed, went dark, then flashed again. The view of the Smallbay's
rear wall was lit by three jets of plasma bursting from underneath the ship. A
noise like thunder filled the bridge and reverberated through the whole craft.
The two outboard motors were the main thrust, vectored down for the moment;
they blasted fire onto the deck of the Smallbay, scattering the machinery and
equipment from underneath and around the craft, slamming it into walls and off
the roof as the blinding jets of flame steadied under the vessel. The inboard,
lift-only nose motor fired raggedly at first, then settled quickly, starting
to burn its own hole through the thin layer of ultradense material which
covered the Smallbay floor. The Clear Air Turbulence stirred like a waking
animal, groaning and creaking and shifting its weight. On the screen, a huge
shadow veered across the wall and the roof in front as the infernal light from
the nose fusion motor burned under the ship; rolling clouds of gas from
burning machinery were starting to haze over the view. Horza was amazed that
the walls of the Smallbay had held out. He flicked the bow laser at the same
time as increasing the fusion motor power.
The screen detonated with light. The wall ahead burst open like a flower seen
in time lapse, huge petals throwing themselves towards the ship and a million
pieces of wreckage and debris flashing past the vessel's nose on the shock
wave of air bursting in from the far side of the lasered wall. At the same
time, the Clear Air Turbulence lifted off. The leg-weight readouts stopped at
zero, then blanked out as the legs, glowing red with heat, stowed themselves
inside the hull. Emergency undercarriage cooling circuits whined into action.