The Nexus Colony Read Online Free PDF Page B

the ski drag for a very long time before Grimes finally heard the engines roar back to full power as the plane abruptly stopped its vibrating, the bulky transport finally airborne again and no longer engaged in the ski drag. It probably took all of a minute and a half, but to Grimes, it seemed a hell of a lot longer. But it was finally over with. At least phase one was. If this was a good runway, they would go around again and come in for a landing, basically setting the plane down in the same tracks he had just made across the ice field. Most of the pilots referred to it as a controlled crash landing in the same vein of carrier pilots. Grimes couldn’t agree more. If a pilot didn’t like what he saw, well…he’d start all over again and find another promising runway somewhere else along the glacier field.
    The plane continued to climb in altitude until Grimes could see by the altimeter on the instrument panel that they were up at about six hundred feet. As the plane made one more bank, the ski tracks came into view across the flat, unending surface of the glacier. Grimes unbuckled his belt—which wasn’t doing much good anyway—and peered out the window at the field below. To him the ski tracks looked okay, but he was glad it wasn’t him who was going to make the decision.
    Daniels looked over at his co-pilot, who said, “Looks all right to me. What d’ya think?”
    “Felt okay.” Daniels replied placidly. “Seemed pretty solid.” Then turning around to Grimes, he asked, “What do you think, doc? Give her a try?”
    “You’re asking me?” Grimes responded, surprised, not really sure if they were kidding or not. He’d never been asked before by a pilot for his opinion about a ski drag.
    “Well, as long as you say it’s all right, doc,” the pilot said, “we’ll take her in.” Then he put the plane into a steep bank to circle around for the landing.
    Grimes still didn’t know whether they were yanking his chain or not. Thinking it had to be a joke, he opted to say nothing. Wouldn’t have mattered one way or another, because they were obviously taking this plane down regardless.
    The co-pilot pointed to Grimes’ seatbelt. He buckled up quickly. The aircraft leveled off again as the pilot re-oriented his landing approach and backed off on the throttles again. The plane dropped in altitude, and as the ground rapidly came up to meet them, Grimes held tightly to the undercarriage of the seat and hoped these crazy sons-of-bitches really only were kidding about the safety of the landing site.
    But the thump didn’t come this time. Instead, the touchdown was as smooth as silk, and the next thing he knew he heard the whoosh of the engines as the four powerful turbo-prop engines hit reverse thrusters. Grimes felt the plane begin to slow, the vibration start again, and suddenly the machine started a freestyle skid across the glacier at a speed faster than any downhill ski racer ever dreamed about achieving. The ride got a little bumpy, but for some reason not nearly as much as when they dragged through the ice the first time. The only thing Grimes could figure out was that Daniels had set the machine right back down in the tracks he had made before. A pretty good piece of piloting , Grimes thought. This guy was good. Grimes was glad he had kept his mouth shut and hadn’t made a fool of himself to give these flyboys more cannon fodder to talk about back at McMurdo.
    When the reverse thrust effect of the engines had slowed the plane down to a speed lower than their effectiveness, the pilot pulled the throttles back to idle speed. Unlike landing an aircraft conventionally on a solid runway where a pilot could utilize the brakes, you were now literally in an uncontrolled skid across the ice. The only thing to slow you down and stop you now was whatever friction was created between the bottoms of the skis and the ice itself.
    The great bulk of the transport propelled the LC-130 along the surface of the glacier.