Saucer: The Conquest Read Online Free PDF Page B

background of obsidian black.
    She had little time to enjoy the scenery. The next task was rendezvousing with the orbiting fuel tank. She became engrossed in the problem, watching the display that depicted the spaceplane and the orbiting tank and the three-dimensional course to intercept.
    When she realized that the join-up was working perfectly and Lalouette had everything under complete control, she glanced again at the moon. For some reason it seemed larger than it did standing on the surface of earth. Now it appeared as what it was, another world.
    The obsidian sky full of stars, the weightless feeling, the earth hanging beside the spaceplane with storms over the oceans and snowy mountain peaks twinkling in the sun—Charley Pine had been here before and been forever changed by the experience. Now she was back. She was sooo excited… and just as her personal karma account began overflowing she remembered Rip and felt the tiniest twinge of guilt.
    Yeah, so, he wasn’t here! He was only twenty-three, for Christ’s sake. He didn’t earn a seat in a spaceplane’s cockpit; she did! All those years in college, flying, test pilot school—yet she wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Rip.
    Well, she would tell him about it when she returned to earth. That was the best that she could do. She brushed Rip away and returned to the business at hand, controllers and trajectories and systems.
    Charley Pine took physical control of Jeanne d’Arc for the first time over the Pacific Ocean to effect the rendezvous with the orbiting fuel cell. With the sound of her breathing rasping in her ears and her heart thudding in her chest, she made tiny control inputs as the spaceplane crossed the distance between the two orbiting bodies. She knew from her military flying experience and the simulator that it was necessary to check the closure rate on the instruments—not to rely on her eyes—since the rate would appear to increase as the bodies closed the distance.
    With Lalouette monitoring the instruments and calling out the distance and closure rate, she flew the spaceplane into the rendezvous position and stopped all closure. Only after all relative motion had stopped did she nudge the controls enough to gently bring the spaceplane into the fueling port. The clunk of the hydraulic latches closing, locking the ship firmly to the tank, was the best sound she had heard in years. She breathed a huge sigh of relief.
    “Nicely done,” said a male voice, not Lalouette.
    She looked around. Pierre Artois was watching. He was suspended in the cabin, floating, maintaining his position by occasionally touching something fixed to the ship. Even though this was his first journey into space, he looked quite comfortable.
    “Thank you.”
    “If I may ask, mademoiselle, why did you accept my offer to join our expedition?”
    Charley glanced at Lalouette, a working pilot who had beaten out hundreds of other applicants for one of the four first-pilot positions, and saw him glance curiously at her.
    “I was looking for a flying job,” Charley replied, “and you made an offer.” She shrugged. Gallicly, she hoped.
    Artois wasn’t satisfied. “I have heard that you are a part owner of the patents on the flying saucer propulsion technology that was recently licensed by Monsieur Cantrell. If true, you must be a very wealthy woman.”
    Lalouette’s eyes widened when he heard that remark. To the best of Charley’s knowledge, her ownership of a portion of the proceeds from the saucer propulsion licensing deals had not been publicly reported. Apparently Artois had done his homework before he hired her.
    “That comment is going to do wonderful things for my social life,” Charley shot back. “Listen, Mr. Artois. I’m a professional aviator. Flying is what I do. I’ll fly anything you people own, including spaceships, as long as the paychecks cash. Bounce one and I’m outta here.”
    “Sounds fair enough,” Artois said dryly, and shoved