Pat said, “What does all that mean?”

“It means that we won’t have time to pick a place to land. Think about it this way; Imagine you’re trying to hop a ride on a train that is traveling faster than you can run, but you have an angle that will allow you, if you run fast, to reach the back end of the caboose with just enough time for one quick grab at the ladder before the train’s out of reach. We’ll have to fly straight down and take our chances.”

Koothrappally said, “And with the Earth’s surface being seventy percent water, we will, in all probability, land in the ocean.”

Pat said, “And this ship doesn’t float.”

“No.”

A sense of gloom settled on the crew.

Billy said, “Don’t give up. We may put down on dry land, or hit the water near someplace we can swim to.”

Koothrappally said, “And we have a small window of opportunity at the last moment as well, because once we are low enough in the atmosphere, we can maneuver a bit. The problem is that we will have to enter the atmosphere at maximum speed, and if we enter at too shallow an angle, we will bounce off and sail away in the ether, never to catch our planet. If we enter the atmosphere too direct, we will be crushed from the impact and will immolate from the air-friction on the vessel. And, if we enter at the precise angle necessary for us to survive, we do not know what damage that in itself will cause the Argent.”

Avi said, “Or us.”

Avi’s statement needed no answer.

[ 109 ]

They flew for hours through the silent void and into the fourteenth day. There was little talking. Bixie was the only one who rarely looked at the ever-growing blue planet to their front. Her attention stayed on the glowing orb in her lap, and the small blue fingers of light that came from it and regularly touched her face.

The Argent shot through the ether and the Earth seemed to grow faster and faster until it filled their window. They crew could see continents with their brown and tan deserts and the wavy green lines of rivers. The huge ocean covered most of the visible area and varied from turquoise to indigo. Everywhere there floated many, many clouds. The polar regions were free of clouds and shone as brilliant white as frosted diamonds. They were so bright it hurt the eyes to look at them for any length of time.

Avi was nervous. His throat felt as parched and scratchy as sandpaper. He asked Billy, “Will I be having time to be drinking water in the galley before we, well, uh...?”

“Hurry, then everybody needs to strap themselves in.”

Avi went down into the galley and gulped down half a quart of

water. He put the container down in the holder and started back when the Argent shook like a rat in a terrier’s mouth. The violent motion tossed him the floor.

The hull shuddered and the crew heard the frightening sound of tearing metal.

A large rent appeared in the wall near the transmogrifier. Wind howled through the opening. A battered golden arm snaked inside, grabbed a pipe and pulled the Golden Man through the hole and into the Argent. The robot had only one-leg but it stood steadily on the floor. The head was crushed and mangled so that, if it had features, one eye would still show. It had one complete arm with the other gone below the elbow. The torso showed punctures and explosion-blackened areas in a dozen places.

The escaping vortex sucked anything loose into a swirl and out of the ship.

“Shit!” Edgar Burroughs cried.

The Argent lurched abruptly as the ship struck the upper atmosphere, and Edgar Burroughs thumped against the ceiling of the Engine Room.

The Golden Man turned its misshapen head upwards. Its forehead began to glow.

“Oh no!” Burroughs cried, and launched himself to the side as an intense beam of light leapt from the robot’s forehead and punched a three-foot wide hole from the Engine Room up into the bridge, and with it the vortex of escaping air. Everything was suddenly in motion: plates, cups, papers, Koothrappally’s pencils, leather straps and the metal bowl next to Bixie. The escaping air made a howling sound so loud no one could hear anything else, not even Avi’s screams.

The Golden Man’s upper torso appeared on the bridge of the Argent through the gaping hole in the deck.

Bixie hadn’t yet strapped herself in, and she lifted in the air, carried by the wind. Pat snaked out a long arm and grabbed one of her wrists, holding the little Jamiacan aloft like a kite in the wind. The orb in her other hand changed from a blue glow to deep red. The golden robot saw the orb and, using one hand to balance against the deck, attempted to crawl onto the bridge.

Pistol fire erupted in the cabin as Billy emptied his Colt into the robot’s head. Bullets ricocheted away, splanging into the walls and ceiling.

Down below, Edgar felt as frightened as a rabbit under a hunting hawk, but he grasped the robot’s leg and stopped the thing’s upward progress. On the bridge above, Koothrappally jumped at the robot and the Golden Man knocked him into across the cabin, where he lay unmoving. Pat moved fast, carrying the steam extinguisher in his right hand like a large metal club. The robot’s crushed forehead glowed for a moment, then sputtered out and returned to gold. It reached for Pat with the one remaining hand. Garrett leaned away from it and swung the extinguisher in a long, hard arc into the robot’s head.

The Golden Man fell back into the Engine Room and directly onto the transmogrifier, causing a sudden storm of yellow and blue lightning that leapt between it and the engine. Edgar Burroughs managed to duck away just in time to keep himself from getting fried. The engine squealed, shook, and broke one of the anchor bolts from the floor as the robot ripped and pounded at it with the metal fist. The engine shuddered and smoked even as the robot regained its stance.

Billy said to Ekka, “We’re losing power fast.”

Tags: Billy Kring Science Fiction
Source: readsnovelonline.net