The Venging Read Online Free PDF Page B

defense pilot usually, either. I
    understand you've had pilot's training.
    (19 of 197) "Just enough to get by." The lag was less than a hundredth of a second, not noticeable. "You know I'm up here to stop you, one way or another. I've got two options. The one I think more highly of is to get in line-of-sight of your boreholes and relay the proper coded signals to the charges in your interior." "Killing me won't do you any good." "That's not the plan. The fore end of your rock is bored with a smaller hole by thirty meters. It'll release the blast wastes more slowly than the aft end. The total explosive force should give the rock enough added velocity to get it clear of the Earth by at least sixty kilometers. The damage would be negligible. Spectacular view from Greenland, too, I understand. But if we've miscalculated, or if one or more charges doesn't go, then I'll have to impact with your aft crater and release the charge in my cargo hold. I'm one floating megaboom now, enough to boost the rock up and out by a few additional kilometers. But that means I'll be dead, and not enough left of me to memorialize or pin a medal on. Not too good, hm?" "None of my sweat." "No, I suppose not. But listen, sister" "No sister to a lackey." Porter started to snap a retort, but stopped himself. "Listen, they tell me to be soft on you, but I'm under pressure, too, so please reciprocate. I don't see the sense in all of it. If you get your way, you've set back your cause by God knows how many decadesbecause once you're out of range and blown your trump, they'll deny it all, say it was manufactured evidence and testimony under pressureall that sort of thing. And if they decide to hard-line it, force me to do my dirty work, or God forbid let you do yourswe've lost our homeworld. You've lost Psyche, which can still be salvaged and finished. Everything will be lost, just because a few men may or may not have done a very wicked thing. Come on, honey. That isn't the Geshel creed, and you know it." "What is our creed? To let men rule our lives who aren't competent to read a thermometer? Under the Naderites, most of the leaders on Earth haven't got the technical expertise to to I don't know what. To tie their goddamn shoes! They're blind, dedicated to some half-wit belief that progress is the most dangerous thing conceived by man. And when they won't touch our filthy nuclear energy, we get stuck with itbecause otherwise we all have to go back four hundred years, and sacrifice half the population. Is that good planning, sound policy? And if they do what I say, Psyche won't be damaged. All they'll have to do is fetch it back from orbit around the sun." "I'm not going to argue on their behalf, sister. I'm a Geshel, too, and a Moonman besides. I never have paid attention to Earth politics because it never made much sense to me. But now I'm talking to you one-to-one, and you're telling me that taking revenge against someone's irrational system is worth wiping (20 of 197) away a planet?" "I'm willing to take that risk." "I don't think you are. I hope you aren't. I hope it's all bluff, and I won't have to smear myself against your backside." "I hope you won't, either. I hope they've got enough sense down there to do what I want." "I don't think they have, sister. I don't put much faith in them, myself. They probably don't even know what would happen if you hit the Earth with your rock. Think about that. You're talking about scientific innocentsflat-Earthers almost, naive. Words fail me. But think on it. They may not even know what's going on." "They know. And remind them that if they set off the charges, it'll probably break up Psyche and give them a thousand rocks to contend with instead of one. That plan may backfire on them." "What if theywedon't have any choice?" "I don't give a damn what choice you have," Turco said. "I'm not talking for a while. I've got more work to do." Porter listened to the final click with a sinking feeling. She was a tough one. How