Approaching Omega Read Online Free PDF Page A

of it down, then pushed himself over to where Emecheta and Li were hunched over their com-stations.
    "What's happening?"
    They were too intent on the screens to explain. He turned to Renfrew. "How long have we been out?"
    "A thousand years, like we programmed."
    "So we weren't pulled out by the emergency alarm?"
    She shook her head. "As soon as I woke, I checked things at my com-station. Central's as dead as before — and something's happened to the auxiliary back-up. It's down. We've got no link to the hangars."
    Emecheta turned to him. "I don't understand this, Ted. Everything was AOK when we went under. This shouldn't have happened."
    Li looked up from her station. "No link to the log, either, Ted. We're completely cut off."
    "Okay, so what about the ship? Are we still maintaining speed and course?"
    Emecheta shrugged. "No way of knowing."
    "Visually?" Latimer suggested. "Can we open the viewscreen?"
    Li shook her head. "I tried. Nothing."
    Latimer paced to the end of the unit and back. The Dauntless was still moving. The constant, thrumming vibration conducted itself through the superstructure of the starship and entered his bones, just as it had done a thousand years ago.
    "Perhaps it's a link problem," Renfrew said. "Central's still functioning, but we've been cut off."
    Emecheta considered that. "No way. What about the over-ride circuit? We should be able to get through on some link if Central was still up and running."
    Latimer was aware that all eyes were on him. "Our first priority is the sleepers," he said. "First we make sure the systems in the hangars are working. Then we drop to the core and see if we can work out what gives with Central."
    The others nodded.
    "Em and Serena, check hangar One. Jenny, we'll see if we can get through to hangar Five."
    They took the dropshaft to the main lateral corridor, a featureless grey tunnel with all the aesthetics of a storm-drain. They stepped from the plate and crossed to the entry hatch. Latimer tapped the access code into the control unit and stood back.
    Nothing happened.
    Renfrew glanced at him. "You hit the right code?" she asked.
    He tapped it again. "Five — zero — two — five. Open sesame."
    The hatch remained shut.
    Emecheta pushed past him. "Let me try." He tapped the code and waited, with no result.
    "Christ!" He removed the cover of the control unit, pulled tools from his belt-pack, and began tinkering.
    "Over-riding the command signal," he said. "This should do the trick."
    "In your dreams," Renfrew commented when the hatch remained closed.
    "If we can't get to the hangars..." Li began, voicing what Latimer was thinking.
    "And the AI systems are down," he finished.
    Carrie... he thought. From one nightmare scenario to another.
    "Okay," he said. "Serena, go get the cutting tools from stores."
    "I'll help you," Li said.
    Emecheta looked at him. "So," he said when the women had taken the upshaft. "What the hell gives?"
    "Beats me. Omega never prepared us for this kind of emergency." He paused, then said: "What about the roboids? They service the sleepers, right? You slaved them to auxiliary, and auxiliary is down."
    Emecheta nodded. "Right."
    A feeling very much like despair opened up inside Latimer. The sleep pods could function for a thousand years or so, just so long as nothing went wrong. In the event of some mechanical dysfunction, in theory there were always drones on hand to fix things.
    But with Central and auxiliary down, and the drones leaderless...
    "Christ knows how many sleepers we might have lost, boss," Emecheta murmured.
    Renfrew and Li returned, hauling a big cutter and a tool box.
    Li primed the laser-cutter, the bulky device incongruous when wielded by an operator as diminutive as the Korean. She stood with it lodged on her hip and applied the working end of the cutter to the hatch.
    It burned, sending up a plume of acrid smoke.
    She worked with painstaking care, slicing a vertical line though the metal. When she reached the floor, Emecheta