Poseidon's Wake Read Online Free PDF Page B

using pipes and handholds projecting from the wrecked hull. There was a narrow ledge beneath the lock and extending to one side of it. Korsakov was the first to reach the ledge, its width just taking his feet. He traversed sideways, one hand reaching to his left, the other hanging on to a rail over his head.
    Dalal and Lucien went next, and then Kanu. Swift monkeyed up alongside them with dismaying agility, pausing only to scuff dust from the collar of his coat.
    ‘Lock power is still active,’ Korsakov announced. ‘I am going to try and open it.’ Continuing to brace himself with his right hand, he folded aside an armoured panel to access a bank of controls.
    ‘Well?’ Lucien asked.
    ‘Cycling,’ Korsakov said. ‘But this is, as Dalal said, a very small lock. I doubt it will hold more than one of us at a time.’
    ‘We’ll see you on the other side,’ Kanu said. ‘It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.’
    ‘Under the terms of our arrangement,’ Swift said, ‘I must not be the last to enter.’
    ‘We weren’t about to forget you,’ Lucien muttered.
    Korsakov was soon inside the lock with the outer door sealed and the chamber pressurising. His voice sounded as clear as before. ‘The lock is reaching normal pressure. I will not, of course, be so foolish as to remove my helmet, and I advise the rest of you to follow my example.’
    ‘Tell us when the inner door opens,’ Dalal said.
    ‘It is doing just that, Garudi. I am stepping through into the ship. There is heat and power and emergency lighting, but no immediate sign of life.’
    ‘Garudi is next, then Lucien,’ Kanu said. ‘I’ll allow Swift to enter before me. Is that arrangement acceptable to all parties?’
    There was no dissent, and so Dalal cycled through the lock next. She joined Korsakov on the other side, confirming his initial observations. ‘Much less structural damage than I was expecting. Everything looks straight and there’s still power, as Yevgeny says. The lower levels must have absorbed a lot of the impact.’
    ‘Bad news for anyone down there,’ Lucien said.
    Kanu waited for the Consolidation ambassador to pass through the lock. Save for himself, the breathing members of the party were now all inside the wreck. It was just Kanu and the robot, alone under the sky of Mars.
    ‘Now your turn,’ he told Swift.
    ‘Thank you, Kanu. It’s rather irksome that I must use the lock in the first place, but there’s no avoiding it.’
    ‘When robots build ships, you can show us how it’s done.’
    ‘We shan’t build ships, Kanu. We shall become them.’
    He waited on the ledge until Swift had gone through, and then counted the long seconds until the lock was ready to admit him. He cursed himself for forgetting to zero his suit clock the moment they landed on Mars.
    ‘How long have we been here?’ he asked Dalal when he finally joined the others.
    ‘Thirteen minutes just to get this far. And we’ll need to allow the same amount of time to get out.’
    Kanu nodded within his helmet. Panels and signs were still aglow, and dim yellow service lighting offered glimpses into adjoining passageways and compartments.
    ‘We’ll never sweep the whole thing,’ he said, ‘so we won’t try. For a start, I think we can rule out survivors in the lower levels. But we should be able to reach the control core easily enough.’
    ‘It would be unwise to raise your hopes,’ Lucien said.
    ‘I’m not.’
    ‘Regardless, Kanu is correct,’ Dalal said. ‘For the sake of making our governments look good, we must go through the motions.’
    ‘Steady with talk like that,’ Kanu said. ‘They’ll hang you for honesty.’
    Dalal grinned back at him through her faceplate. ‘Being hanged is the least of my present worries.’
    The slope of the floor made progress tricky, but they found their way to the central trunk elevator without too much trouble.
    Korsakov found the control panel and punched the big manual button to summon their ride.