Read Online The Makeshift Rocket by Poul Anderson - Free Book Online Page A

a trifle monotonous,’ quirked McConnell. He came aroundthe pilot chair and stood beside her. The red hairs on the back of one hand brushed her bare thigh; she gulped and clung to the chair for support.
    After all, her duty was to distract him. She was certain that even Isadora Duncan, the pure and serene, would have approved.
    McConnell reached out a long arm and switched off the bridge lights, so that they stood in the soft, drenching radiance of Grendel, among a million stars. ‘’Tis enough to make a man believe in destiny,’ he said.
    ‘It is?’ asked Emily. Her voice wobbled, and she berated herself. ‘I mean, what is?’
    ‘Crossin’ space on this mission an’ findin’ ye waitin’ at the yonder end. For I’ll admit to yez what I’ve dared say to no one else, ’tis not important to me who owns that silly piece of ore Laoighise. I went with O’Toole because a McConnell has never hung back from any brave venture, arragh, how ye wring truth from me which I had not ayven admitted to meself! Oh, to be sure, I’m proud to do me country a service, but I cannot think ’tis so great an’ holy a deed as O’Toole prates of. So I came more on impulse than plan, me darlin’, an’ yet I found me destiny. The which is your own sweet self.’
    Emily’s heart thumped with unreasonable violence. She clasped her hands tightly to her breast, because one of them had been sneaking toward McConnell’s broad paw. ‘Oh?’ she said out of dry lips. ‘I mean, really?’
    ‘Yes. An’ sorry I am that our work distresses yez. I can only hope to make amends later. But trust we’ll have fifty or sixty years for that!’
    ‘Er, yes,’ said Emily.
    ‘What?’ roared McConnell. He spun on his heel, laid hishands about her waist, and stared wildly down into her eyes. ‘Did I hear ye say yes?’
    ‘I … I … I – No, please listen to me!’ wailed Emily, pushing against his chest. ‘Let go! I mean, all I wanted to say was, if you don’t really care how this business comes out, if you really don’t think Lois is worth risking a war over and—’ She drew a deep breath and tacked a smile on her face. Now was the time to distract him, as Mr. Syrup had requested. ‘And if you really want to please me, R-r-r-ro—Major McConnell, then why don’t you help us right now? Just let us make that sparky osculator or whatever it is to call New Winchester for help, and everything will be so nice and – I mean—’
    His hands fell to his sides and his mouth stretched tight. He turned from her, leaned on the instrument board and stared out at the constellations.
    ‘No,’ he said. ‘I’ve given me oath to support the Force to the best of me ability. Did I turn on me comrades, there’d be worse than hellfire waitin’ for me, there’d be the knowin’ of meself for less than a man.’
    Emily moistened her lips. There must be some way to distract him, she thought frantically. That beautiful lady agent in
The Son of the Spider
, the one who lured Sir Frederic Banton up to her apartment while the Octopus stole the secret papers from his office – She stood frozen among thunders, unable to bring herself to it, until another memory came, some pictures of an accidental atomic explosion of Callisto and its aftermath. That sort of thing might be done to little children, deliberately, if there was a war.
    She stole up behind McConnell, laid her cheek against his back and her arms around his waist. ‘Oh, Rory,’ she said.
    ‘What?’ He spun around again. He was so quick on his feet she didn’t have time to let go and was whipped aroundwith him. ‘Where are ye?’ he called.
    ‘Here,’ she said, picking herself up.
    She leaned on his arm – she had never before known a man who could take her whole weight thus without even stirring – and forced her eyes toward his. ‘Oh, Rory,’ she tried again.
    ‘What do ye mean?’ It was a disquieting surprise that he did not sweep her into his embrace, but stood rigidly and