The Wolf Worlds Read Online Free
Top-to-bottom, of course, since disaster never comes as a solitary guest, just as the Cienfuegos finally hit solid atmosphere.
Doc was the only being who might have found the situation humorous as the craft spun wildly out of control, beyond the skew-path Ida had plotted, beyond even a conventional dive, beyond any kind of sanity.
But Doc was not chuckling. He was, after all, seconds from death.
As were Sten and the other members of Mantis.
The ship crackled out of the skies and plunged into the upper atmosphere. Sensors sniffed wildly for surface… any kind of molecular surface at all.
Figures danced and swirled across the ship's computer screen and Sten shouted strings of changing numbers at Ida. Her fingers flowed across the controls, tucking in the impedimenta of the mining ship, sliding out two stubby wings. She tensed, as she felt the beginnings of atmosphere. Brought the nose down gently… gently… The ship hit the first layer of air and spun wildly.
Ida slammed on the right thruster, a short violent flare, then off again. Hit the left. And slowly brought the ship back under control. Nose in again. Just right. Slicing deeper into the air a degree at a time. Then the ship settled out, behaving like a ship again.
Sten glanced around. Bet was pale in her seat, but steady.
Alex was flexing excess gees out of his muscles. And Doc had the fixed stare in his teddy-bear face that he got when he was plotting revenge on someone. Ida shot a grin over her shoulder.
"Now let's find a place to hide," Sten said.
She just nodded and turned back to the controls.
Suddenly the jet stream hit them at twice the speed of sound.
On the Cienfuegos girders bent and groaned. Cables snapped and whipped, sparking and hissing like electric snakes.
The massive air current tossed the Cienfuegos again, further out of control and driving it helplessly down toward the surface of the unknown planet.
Ida cursed and fought the control board, trying not to gray out. One viewscreen flashed a possible crashlanding site, then blanked out.
Ida jammed out everything the ship had that resembled brakes, from the stubby emergency landing foil to the landing struts to the atmosphere sampling scoops.
The ship juddered and jolted as the little winglets bit into the atmosphere, and Ida punched the nose thrusters, momentarily pancaking the Cienfuegos into something resembling control.
A moment later the Cienfuegos topped the high walls of the huge volcanic crater Ida had targeted on and then was booming low over a vast lake, sonic blast hurling up waves.
Everything not fastened down hurtled forward as Ida reversed the Yukawa-drive main thrusters and went to emergency power.
A prox-detector screen advised Ida that the current landing projection would impact the Cienfuegos against a low clifflet rimming the lake's edge—something that Ida was quite aware of from the single remaining viewscreen.
Ida did the only thing she could and forced the Cienfuegos into a 10-degree nose-down attitude.
The ship plowed into the lake, slashing out a huge, watery canyon.
And Sten was back on Vulcan, running through the endless warrens after Bet, Oron, and the other Delinqs. The Socio-patrolmen were closing in on him and he shouted after his gang to turn and figtit. Help him.
Something stung at him beyond dream-pain and Sten was clawing his way back up into bedlam. Every alarm on the ship was howling and blinking.
Doc was standing on Sten's chest, methodically larruping him across the face with his paws. Sten blinked, then wove up to a sitting position.
The other Mantis soldiers were scrambling around the room, in the careful frenzy that is normal Mantis-emergency.
Alex was lugging gear to the open port—wrong, Sten realized, it was a gaping tear in the ship's side—and hurling it out into bright sunlight. Bet had the tigers out of their capsules and was coaxing the moderately terrified beasts out of the ship. Ida was piling up anything electronic that was
Doc was the only being who might have found the situation humorous as the craft spun wildly out of control, beyond the skew-path Ida had plotted, beyond even a conventional dive, beyond any kind of sanity.
But Doc was not chuckling. He was, after all, seconds from death.
As were Sten and the other members of Mantis.
The ship crackled out of the skies and plunged into the upper atmosphere. Sensors sniffed wildly for surface… any kind of molecular surface at all.
Figures danced and swirled across the ship's computer screen and Sten shouted strings of changing numbers at Ida. Her fingers flowed across the controls, tucking in the impedimenta of the mining ship, sliding out two stubby wings. She tensed, as she felt the beginnings of atmosphere. Brought the nose down gently… gently… The ship hit the first layer of air and spun wildly.
Ida slammed on the right thruster, a short violent flare, then off again. Hit the left. And slowly brought the ship back under control. Nose in again. Just right. Slicing deeper into the air a degree at a time. Then the ship settled out, behaving like a ship again.
Sten glanced around. Bet was pale in her seat, but steady.
Alex was flexing excess gees out of his muscles. And Doc had the fixed stare in his teddy-bear face that he got when he was plotting revenge on someone. Ida shot a grin over her shoulder.
"Now let's find a place to hide," Sten said.
She just nodded and turned back to the controls.
Suddenly the jet stream hit them at twice the speed of sound.
On the Cienfuegos girders bent and groaned. Cables snapped and whipped, sparking and hissing like electric snakes.
The massive air current tossed the Cienfuegos again, further out of control and driving it helplessly down toward the surface of the unknown planet.
Ida cursed and fought the control board, trying not to gray out. One viewscreen flashed a possible crashlanding site, then blanked out.
Ida jammed out everything the ship had that resembled brakes, from the stubby emergency landing foil to the landing struts to the atmosphere sampling scoops.
The ship juddered and jolted as the little winglets bit into the atmosphere, and Ida punched the nose thrusters, momentarily pancaking the Cienfuegos into something resembling control.
A moment later the Cienfuegos topped the high walls of the huge volcanic crater Ida had targeted on and then was booming low over a vast lake, sonic blast hurling up waves.
Everything not fastened down hurtled forward as Ida reversed the Yukawa-drive main thrusters and went to emergency power.
A prox-detector screen advised Ida that the current landing projection would impact the Cienfuegos against a low clifflet rimming the lake's edge—something that Ida was quite aware of from the single remaining viewscreen.
Ida did the only thing she could and forced the Cienfuegos into a 10-degree nose-down attitude.
The ship plowed into the lake, slashing out a huge, watery canyon.
And Sten was back on Vulcan, running through the endless warrens after Bet, Oron, and the other Delinqs. The Socio-patrolmen were closing in on him and he shouted after his gang to turn and figtit. Help him.
Something stung at him beyond dream-pain and Sten was clawing his way back up into bedlam. Every alarm on the ship was howling and blinking.
Doc was standing on Sten's chest, methodically larruping him across the face with his paws. Sten blinked, then wove up to a sitting position.
The other Mantis soldiers were scrambling around the room, in the careful frenzy that is normal Mantis-emergency.
Alex was lugging gear to the open port—wrong, Sten realized, it was a gaping tear in the ship's side—and hurling it out into bright sunlight. Bet had the tigers out of their capsules and was coaxing the moderately terrified beasts out of the ship. Ida was piling up anything electronic that was
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