Read Online Katya's World by Jonathan L. Howard - Free Book Online Page B

She’d remembered the dark shapes up in their cradles when Kane and she had been taken from the maw to the sickbay. She was glad she’d been right about what they were.
    Tokarov climbed up onto the hull of the starboard contra-gravity craft. It looked like a long surface boat with heavy outriders, which she guessed contained the forward drives. They wouldn’t be needing those; only the powerful lift units. Tokarov fed a length of tape around the craft and its cradle and crimped it shut. Katya climbed onto the port craft and started doing the same.
    “ These cradles have clamps on them. Won’t those be enough? ”
    The lieutenant shook his head as he laid a second length of tape further down his craft’s hull. “ They’re just to stop the flyer falling out of the cradle in harsh conditions or during extreme manoeuvres. What we’re doing is something else again. How are you doing? ”
    Katya had just managed her first binding and didn’t think the crimp sealing the tape into a continuous loop looked very secure. “ I’m doing okay, ” she replied, promising herself that the next one would be better.
    Tokarov had the benefit of experience and longer arms and had his craft almost cocooned in the silvery tape before Katya was even a quarter done. He came over and helped and soon both craft were fastened to their cradles as thoroughly as was possible without getting out welding gear. Tokarov went to the intercom had hailed the bridge. “ We’re ready when you are, captain. ”
    “ Do it now, lieutenant, ” snapped Zagadko’s voice in reply. “ Time is wasting. ”
    The lieutenant clambered quickly up into the cockpit of the starboard craft, Katya doing likewise for the port flyer. “ Ever flown one of these, Ms? It’s simple. Power is just like a minisub’s. ” Katya sought and found a bank of switches like those she’d used to fire up the Baby just a few hours before. It seemed impossible that things could have changed so dramatically and so awfully in so little time. “ That’s good. Lift controls are the ones under your left hand, the slide control. On my mark, move it forward slowly . Ready? Three, two, one, mark! ”
    Katya gently slid the control forward. As it moved, the status screen showed the amount of mass the contra-gravity units were now ignoring. “ Approaching parity, ” she reported. It was a phase she’d heard some pilot use in a drama about the war once. She guessed it meant that the craft now effectively weighed nothing. It sounded calm and professional and, if she’d got it wrong, at least Tokarov had the decency not to laugh at her.
    “ Check, ” he replied. “ Keep going. Watch the tolerance meter. You want that to go through yellow into a deep orange. Not red or this has all been for nothing. ”
    Katya pushed the control slowly further still. Now her craft weighed less than nothing. She noticed the tapes running across the flyer’s predatory nose growing taut as it tried to lift from the cradle. The tolerance meter was changing colour so achingly slowly that she wasn’t sure what it was from moment to moment. What if it changed so subtly that what she thought was a very deep orange was actually red? What if she fried the flyer’s CG units because she couldn’t tell?
    “ I’m pulling four gravities and that’s as far as I dare take it. What are you up to? ” asked Tokarov.
    Ah, blessed numbers, Katya sighed with relief. Numbers were nice and reliable and unambiguous. “ Three point seven, eight, nine… four gees! ” She locked off the controls without being told to and climbed out. Tokarov jumped from his craft’s cockpit and landed in front of her. “ Will it be enough? ” she asked him.
    “ Only one way to find out, ” he said. “ Come on. ”
     
    The bridge was still quiet and Zagadko was grim. “ Good work, ” he said. “ Good idea, Ms Kuriakova. Effectively cancelling out the reconnaissance flyer’s weight and giving us more buoyancy to boot has