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her compulsive tendency to see the upside of every situation. As the
Sabre's warrant officer, Beth-Li was trained on every operational station, and
she took more than a quiet pride in her broadly based skills.
Kane glanced toward the slender Eurasian woman and said dryly, "I'm pretty
sure our proximity to the intruder's course had more to do with it."
"Commander," said Farrell from the communications console, "Luna Base reports
that the
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Infinitor has taken up position on the approach lane between Mars and Terra.
We're ordered to drive the intruder toward her."
Kane felt his eyebrows crawl toward his hairline.
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135
The
Infinitor was the biggest gun in the Commonwealth's navy, a huge battlewagon
constructed in
Ur-anian orbit with a standard crew complement of more than a thousand.
Although the
Sabre was a
Rapier-class cruiser, larger and more formidable than the newer ships used for
system patrol duty, the entire craft could fit easily into the cargo bay of
the
Infinitor.
The
Sabre was nearly a half century old and should have been decommissioned ten
years ago. But the
craft and its crew had a dual mission, and the high command of the Sol 9
Commonwealth no longer seemed exactly sure what it was.
The Ranger Corps was not attached to the Commonwealth's official armed forces.
During the early generations of solar-system exploration and colonization, the
corps had been at the forefront, protecting new settlements and intervening in
disputes. With broad magisterial powers, the rangers could and did enforce
laws and apply justice.
But with the establishment of the four colonial councils and their own private
security networks, the
Rangers had been reorganized into a token peacekeeping force. Kane was sure he
and his crew represented the last generation of the Rangers. He knew he would
see the corps abolished within his lifetime.
On the screen, the fuzzy blob was larger and of an orangish hue. Domi said,
"The intruder's speed is dropping...8.4 bricks below the wall."
' 'Dump some of our own bricks. Reduce our speed to 8.5," Kane commanded.
"Let's have the least possible margin of distance."
/They were not speaking so much in slang as in space-travel vernacular. The
"wall" referred to the speed of light, and the term "bricks" was applied to
136
JAMES AXLER
building velocities that approached 299,781 kilometers per second.
If a ship "hit the wall," then she and her crew would contend with the tau
factor, the time-dilation effect.
Any extended flight at appreciable fractions of light speed could jeopardize
mission objectives, since only minutes would tick by aboard ship while years
would pass for the authorities who ordered the mission in the first place.
"Cotta," Kane continued, "see what sensor results you get now." ;
Cotta keyed in the program and went to maximum magnification on the viewer. He
adjusted a toggle on his board, and a second later a new image appeared.
The intruder looked like nothing more than a flying shoe box. It was a perfect
rectangle, totally featureless, with no seams, rivets or engine ports anywhere
in evidence. Kane resisted the impulse to swear, an act Grant took it upon
himself to perform.
"What the fuck?" he snarled. "No sensory apparatus, no apparent motive
power how can the goddamn thing maneuver, much less fly?"
"Sensor results, Cotta?" Kane inquired.
The man removed a sheet of printout from the computer terminal. Consulting it,
he announced, "The latest scan confirms the preliminary. The craft is
twenty-five meters long by fifteen wide. It is constructed of equal parts
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polycon, molded adamantium and vanadium with a titanium-alloy blend. All
materials known to our science."
"What's powering the bloody thing?" Beth-Li demanded.
Cotta shook his head. "I don't know. There's no ionization trail or
electromagnetic fields. No drive signature at all."
Outer Darkness
137
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