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including all sealed interdeck areas, the entire enclosed volume of the
ship below the central disk is only five hundred and sixty-seven
thousand cubic meters."
"Excuse me, but I think the PDQ is in trouble," said Rhombus, gesturing
with one of his ropes toward part of the holographic bubble. Two
Waldahud ships were converging on the Starplex probeship, lasers
crisscrossing.
Keith's eyes darted between the holo display and the monitor on his
console showing the progress of the flooding.
"Wait," said Rhombus, "the Dakterth is coming up on the stern of the two
ships attacking the PDQ. It should be able to draw their fire."
"How are the evacuations coming?" asked Keith.
"On schedule," said Lianne.
"Are we leaking any water into space?"
"No; it's just an internal breach."
"How watertight are our interior doors?"
"Well," said Lianne, "the sliding doors between rooms seal when closed,
but they aren't strong. After all, the door panels are designed so that
anyone can kick them free of their rails for emergency escape in case of
fire. The weight of the water will burst them open."
"What genius thought of that?" asked Thor.
"I think he helped design the Titanic," muttered Keith.
The ship rocked again, heaving back and forth. In the holo display, a
cylinder carved out of Starplex's central disk, ten decks thick, was
tumbling against the night.
"Gawst has cut out our number-two generator," reported Lianne. "I'd
evacuated that part of the engineering torus as soon as he started
carving into it, so there were no casualties. But if he can get one
more of our generators, this ship won't be able to enter hyperdrive,
even if we could get far enough from the star to make that possible."
A burst of light caught Keith's eye. The Dakterth had severed the
engine pod from one of the Waldahud ships that had been firing on the
PDQ. The pod pinwheeled away. It looked as though it was going to
crash into the cylindrical core that had been cut from Starplex, but
that was only a trick of perspective.
"What if we vent the water out into space."?" asked Rhombus.
"We'd have to cut our own hole into the ocean deck to do that," said
Lianne.
"Where would be the easiest spot?" asked Keith.
Lianne consulted a schematic. "The rear wall of docking bay sixteen.
Behind it is the engineering torus, of course. But right at that
location, the torus contains a filtration station for the ocean deck.
In other words, it's already filled with water right up to the back wall
of the docking bay, so you'd only have to carve a hole in the bay's wall
to get water to pour in."
Keith thought for a moment. And then it hit him. "Okay," he said.
"Get someone with a geological laser down to bay sixteen right away."
He turned to Rhombus. "I know the Ibs need gravity, but what if we cut
the artificial gravity, and spin the ship instead?"
"Centrifugal force?" said Lianne. "People would be standing on the
walls."
"Yes. So?"
"Well, and each deck is cross-shaped, so the apparent force of gravity
would increase as you went farther out into each
"But it would also keep the water from flowing down the central shaft,"
said Keith. "Instead, it would be trying to press against the outer
walls of the ocean deck. Thor, could you set up such a spin using our
ACS thrusters?"
"Can do."
Keith looked at Rhombus. "How much gravity do you Ibs need for your
circulatory systems to work?"
Rhombus lifted his ropes. "Tests have suggested that at least one
eighth of a standard-g is required."
"Below deck fifty-five," said Lianne, "even at the ends of the arms, we
won't get that much apparent gravity at any reasonable rotation rate."
"But that's only fifteen floors that have to have their Ibs evacuated
instead of forty," said Keith. "Lianne, inform everyone of what we're
doing. Thor, as soon as no Ib is left below deck fifty-five, start
spinning the ship. Bleed off the artificial gravity as we come up to
speed."
"Will do."
"People should probably vacate the rooms at the ends of each arm,
because of the windows," said Lianne.
"Why?" asked Keith. "They're transparent carbon composite; they won't
break even if people are standing on them."
"Of course not," said Lianne. "But the windows are angled at forty-five
degrees there, because the edges of the habitat modules slope at that
angle. It'll be difficult to stand on them once the apparent gravity
shifts so that those sloping windows become slanted floors."
Keith nodded. "Good point. Pass on that advisory as well."
"Will do."
The holographic head of Longbottle aboard the Rum Runner spoke up.
"Polluted waters we are in. Engines overheating."
Keith nodded at the holegram. "Do what you can; if necessary, head away
from us. Maybe no one will follow you."
Starplex rocked again. "Gawst has started carving into the central disk
beneath our number-three generator," said Rhombus. "And a second one of
his ships is carving in from the top of the disk, right above generator
one."
"Start spinning the ship, Thor."
The starfield holegram began to rotate. The ship reeled again. "That
took Gawst by surprise," said Thor. "His lasers are skittering across
the entire undersurface of the central disk."
Lianne spoke up. "Jessica Fong is in position inside docking bay
sixteen, Keith."
"Show me."
A frame appeared around part of the starfield holegram--now spinning at
dizzying speed. Inside the frame, a picture of the interior of the
docking bay appeared, with a space-suited woman floating in midair.
She was tethered to the rear wall--the one that was shared with the
engineering torus--and the tether was pulled taut as the ship's rotation
flung her outward toward the inside of the curving space door. The [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]