Mechanical Read Online Free PDF Page B

Lieutenant. Keep in mind that you will not be able to leave the Serpent once you enter the pilot's cabin, but there will be no real need for you to leave. Once inside, the Serpent will take care of your every need. However, when you'll want to leave, you'll have to return here for extraction. Your mission coordinator will brief you on the details. Do you understand?"
                Tom nodded.
                "Very well, Lieutenant. Now, we'll start—"
                "Sir, I have a question."
                The man in the lab coat did not seem overly glad to hear that.
                "Lieutenant, keep in mind that we have an extremely tight schedule—"
                "Sir, why can't I leave the Serpent on my own?"
                The lab-coated man's eyebrows drew together angrily.
                "Lieutenant, I thought I made myself clear. The anesthetic procedures used to put your body into suspended animation while keeping your mind alert and active are fairly complex. A correct and constant mixture of gases must be pumped into your suit and injected into your bloodstream. Bringing your body back to full active mode once anesthetized is danger-free but complex. We are the only facility that can do that and safely extract the brain integration electrodes. Do you understand, Lieutenant? Very well, let's go on. Now, in the suit—"
                "Sir, if the Serpent is hit, how will I be able to bail out?" Tom asked.
                "Lieutenant, I already said we don't have a lot of time for questions. Briefly, to answer your very last question, your Serpent will be the best armored vehicle on the battleground. Almost nothing you will encounter will be able to penetrate the Serpent's composite armor, let alone the pilot's cabin, which is the best-protected section in the Serpent. We've already gone through this earlier, and you will receive extensive information about this later. Now, please put on the Serpent's pilot suit and we'll go on."
                "Almost nothing I will encounter," Tom mumbled. He threw a last look at the complicated operating room he was in, took the black suit and moved to a changing room. He removed his uniform and put on the suit. It wasn't exactly uncomfortable, just weird. It clung to his body in strange places and itched. He could also feel cold spots here and there and the suit made unpleasant squelching noises when he returned to the room.
                "Very well, Lieutenant," the nameless lab-coated person said, and the other tech types swarmed over Tom. They moved him to a metal bed where he lay down. They hooked electrodes and wires to the suit and connected tubes to orifices. In a short while, devices in the operating room began to beep and monitors displayed various vital signs. The tubes connected to his suit began pumping in cool gases that made his skin crawl.
                It took less than Tom thought for the various techies to give the okay sign, and the nameless lab-coated person he had talked to earlier stopped checking his watch impatiently, and they moved on, pushing the bed Tom had lain on, carefully moving a host of devices that rolled along on wheels. Tom was now the center of a dense forest of wires, cables and tubes connecting his suit to the devices rolling next to him.
                Like a queen bee, taken care of by its workers, Tom thought.
                A short while later, after passing another security check and a steel door, they entered a large room, a hall. Tom's body started against his will, making his suit squeal and the tech types hurriedly recheck the wire and tube connections. At the center of the hall, suspended by a matrix of steel supports, was a Serpent. It was held up, its arms stretched to the sides, its clawed feet on the ground. It's been crucified there, Tom could not help thinking, his eyes wide.
    But even held