Pirates of the Thunder Read Online Free PDF Page A

machines, Raven. Not their makers, not their charges. Just digits. Binary ones and zeros. Quantity this. Not even the dignity of zoo animals or pets. Carrion. No—live meat in its despicable deep freeze.”
    “Sorry to interrupt,” China’s voice broke in, “but can you get any real landmark on the central cargo bay? You’ve got a lot of people back here who are getting hungry and will also need air.”
    Hawks resented her .intrusion, and also her tone. She must have heard them. When she saw—but, no, she wouldn’t see. She couldn’t. She could be standing right here and it could only be described to her as it might be read by him from some book or computer printout. At times that strange girl seemed more machine than human, anyway. She might very well stand here, even if she could see, and explain the cold and efficient logic behind the system from a computer’s point of view. She probably would.
    “The corridor we entered on has to be one that services this level, running parallel to it,” Raven responded. “Best we might do is pick a direction and follow it until it ends.”
    Hawks tore himself away from his reverie. “No. If we’re near one end of the chamber and go the wrong way it might be ten kilometers to reach an end, and it might be an end with nothing worth the trouble. We must split up. You walk one way, I, the other, until the first one of us comes to an end or some other recognizable feature. Remain parallel to the hatches leading to the walks. If we are not in the center, and the odds are against it, then one of us should reach something useful in a short time.”
    “Fair enough. I’ll go left and if I junction I’ll continue to always take the left fork. You do the same on the right, taking the right fork. We have to get cracking on this. History can wait, as usual.”
    After about another thirty or forty minutes, Raven called out. “I’ve gotten to the end! There’s another catwalk out here, but also ones leading up to hatches all along the wall.”
    “Any distinguishing features on the wall?” China asked him.
    “Hard to see with the light we got. There’s five hatches makin’ kind of a triangle goin’ up one side to a center one and then back down. Lemme haul myself up there and see what’s what.” There was a pause filled with some intermittent grunts. Then Raven spoke again. “It’s recessed in the whole area. Triangle shape, and right up top is a whole bunch of what looks like pipes that come together in a neat line and go into the wall. That help?”
    “Yes. I know exactly where you are. Look carefully down from the center hatch, perhaps centered in the middle. A round plate of some kind, possibly secured by rivets.”
    “Ugh! No handholds down there, and I ain’t got this no-gravity stuff down yet, if I ever will. Let’s see... Yeah! It’s here. Looks like it was designed to turn if you had a handle, but I don’t see one.”
    “A strong magnet would do it. I think we can find something here. It is probably not locked. That is a service tunnel going down to the core room. The center hatch above should lead to the bridge. Hawks?”
    “Yeah?”
    “Stop going where you’ve been walking. You’re walking aft and you’d be a long time getting to anyplace useful. Best you return here and get the rest of us. We must take Star Eagle’s core and the two support modules and see if we can make them fit in there. If we can, we will be masters of this ship.”
    “Uh huh,” Raven grunted. “And if we can’t?”
    “Then we will have to work around it. Let’s try the other first. Master System is almost maniacal about standardization. It’s one reason we have been able to beat the system so often. The interplanetary ships were designed as precursors to these, and there is no evidence that they have ever been significantly changed in their basic design and specifications. You remain there and let Hawks and the rest of us come to you.”
    “Yeah, I’ll just sit here all