Empire of Man 01 - March Upcountry Read Online Free PDF Page A
Author: David Weber
Tags: Science-Fiction
a dozen telltales along his backtrail to warn him that he'd been discovered.
Kosutic plucked the sensor wand off the dead guard's belt and swept the hatch. No obvious traces there. She keyed in the entry code and went through the hatch fast and low as it opened. The blood was already coagulating, and the body was cooling, so the assassin probably wasn't on the far side of the hatch. But Eva Kosutic hadn't survived to be a sergeant major by depending on "probably."
"Engineering, this is Sergeant Major Kosutic," she said into her communicator. "Do not, I say again, do not sound an alert. We have a probable saboteur in Engineering; your guard is dead." She swept the sensor wand around. There were heat traces everywhere, but most went straight ahead. All except one. A single trace split off from the pack, heading to the sergeant major's left, and it looked fresher.
"What?" the communicator demanded incredulously. "Where?"
"It looks like somewhere in quadrant four," she snapped. "Get on your scanners and vids. Find them."
There was a moment of silence from whoever was on the other end of the line. Then—
"Roger," the communicator responded.
She hoped like hell it wasn't the saboteur.
* * *
Ensign Guha paused and looked left and right. She brought up a measuring grid and used it to locate the precise point she needed on the right-hand bulkhead, then reached into her satchel and extracted a one-kilo shaped charge. She stripped the covering plastic off the bottom, affixed it to the bulkhead with the provided adhesive, and examined her handiwork for a moment, to ensure it wasn't going anywhere. Then she pulled a pin and depressed a thumbswitch. A small red light blinked on, then went out; the bomb was armed.
She turned to her left once more and continued her circuit. Only three more to go.
* * *
Captain Pahner closed the front of his chameleon suit and configured his helmet to seal the whole system as the elevator descended. Gunnery Sergeant Jin, already suited, stood beside him with Kosutic's helmet slung at his side and her chameleon suit over his shoulder. The standard issue Marine suits offered better ballistic protection than dress uniforms, faded the wearer into the background, and were designed for vacuum work. They weren't as good as combat armor, but there wasn't time for full armor. He had one platoon warming theirs up anyway, of course, but if this didn't go down in the next few minutes his name wasn't Armand Pahner.
"Eva," he snapped into the helmet mike. "Talk to me."
"Three so far. One-kilo shaped charges right over plasma conduits. They've got anti-tamper devices in them. I can smell it."
"Captain Krasnitsky, this is Captain Pahner," Pahner said sharply. Surprise is a mental condition, not reality, he reminded himself. "We have to shut down those conduits."
"We can't," Krasnitsky answered. "You can't just shut off a tunnel drive. If you tried it, you'd come out at a random point somewhere in a nine-light-year radius sphere. And the plasma has to be slowed down, anyway. If you just try to shut off it . . . backfires. We could lose everything."
"If we were about to be hit in Engineering by enemy fire," Pahner asked, "what would you do then?"
"We'd be under phase drive!" Krasnitsky snapped back. "You can't be hit in tunnel space. There's no procedure for this!"
"Shit," Pahner said quietly. It was the first time anyone had ever heard him swear. "Sergeant Major, get the hell out of there."
"I don't see any timers."
"They're there."
"Probably. But if I can get the shooter . . ."
"They could be on a dead-man's switch," Pahner said, gritting his teeth as he stepped off the elevator. "This is an order, Sergeant Major Kosutic. Get out of there. Now."
"I'm closer to getting out going through the shooter than going back," Kosutic said mildly.
Pahner looked at the first bomb. As Kosutic had said, there were no telltales but it smelled like it had anti-tamper devices. He turned to the sergeant of the
Kosutic plucked the sensor wand off the dead guard's belt and swept the hatch. No obvious traces there. She keyed in the entry code and went through the hatch fast and low as it opened. The blood was already coagulating, and the body was cooling, so the assassin probably wasn't on the far side of the hatch. But Eva Kosutic hadn't survived to be a sergeant major by depending on "probably."
"Engineering, this is Sergeant Major Kosutic," she said into her communicator. "Do not, I say again, do not sound an alert. We have a probable saboteur in Engineering; your guard is dead." She swept the sensor wand around. There were heat traces everywhere, but most went straight ahead. All except one. A single trace split off from the pack, heading to the sergeant major's left, and it looked fresher.
"What?" the communicator demanded incredulously. "Where?"
"It looks like somewhere in quadrant four," she snapped. "Get on your scanners and vids. Find them."
There was a moment of silence from whoever was on the other end of the line. Then—
"Roger," the communicator responded.
She hoped like hell it wasn't the saboteur.
* * *
Ensign Guha paused and looked left and right. She brought up a measuring grid and used it to locate the precise point she needed on the right-hand bulkhead, then reached into her satchel and extracted a one-kilo shaped charge. She stripped the covering plastic off the bottom, affixed it to the bulkhead with the provided adhesive, and examined her handiwork for a moment, to ensure it wasn't going anywhere. Then she pulled a pin and depressed a thumbswitch. A small red light blinked on, then went out; the bomb was armed.
She turned to her left once more and continued her circuit. Only three more to go.
* * *
Captain Pahner closed the front of his chameleon suit and configured his helmet to seal the whole system as the elevator descended. Gunnery Sergeant Jin, already suited, stood beside him with Kosutic's helmet slung at his side and her chameleon suit over his shoulder. The standard issue Marine suits offered better ballistic protection than dress uniforms, faded the wearer into the background, and were designed for vacuum work. They weren't as good as combat armor, but there wasn't time for full armor. He had one platoon warming theirs up anyway, of course, but if this didn't go down in the next few minutes his name wasn't Armand Pahner.
"Eva," he snapped into the helmet mike. "Talk to me."
"Three so far. One-kilo shaped charges right over plasma conduits. They've got anti-tamper devices in them. I can smell it."
"Captain Krasnitsky, this is Captain Pahner," Pahner said sharply. Surprise is a mental condition, not reality, he reminded himself. "We have to shut down those conduits."
"We can't," Krasnitsky answered. "You can't just shut off a tunnel drive. If you tried it, you'd come out at a random point somewhere in a nine-light-year radius sphere. And the plasma has to be slowed down, anyway. If you just try to shut off it . . . backfires. We could lose everything."
"If we were about to be hit in Engineering by enemy fire," Pahner asked, "what would you do then?"
"We'd be under phase drive!" Krasnitsky snapped back. "You can't be hit in tunnel space. There's no procedure for this!"
"Shit," Pahner said quietly. It was the first time anyone had ever heard him swear. "Sergeant Major, get the hell out of there."
"I don't see any timers."
"They're there."
"Probably. But if I can get the shooter . . ."
"They could be on a dead-man's switch," Pahner said, gritting his teeth as he stepped off the elevator. "This is an order, Sergeant Major Kosutic. Get out of there. Now."
"I'm closer to getting out going through the shooter than going back," Kosutic said mildly.
Pahner looked at the first bomb. As Kosutic had said, there were no telltales but it smelled like it had anti-tamper devices. He turned to the sergeant of the