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the bright sunlight, so it would seem that the ship drifting to a stop above
them was virtually weightless, or at least very lightly built like one of
their own flying machines.
"A suggestion, sir," said Chen suddenly. "If your intention
is to make a blatant demonstration of power that will discourage, and probably
scare hell out of the enemy without inflicting actual physical injury, this is
the way to do it___"
"The spiders aren't our enemy, Lieutenant," said Fletcher dryly, "they just
act that way. But go on."
"But if they don't discourage easily," the other continued, "we could be faced
with a siege situation so that balancing our-selves up here on power-hungry
stilts would be a short-term activity as well as running down our power
reserves. My sugges-tion is that we land and modify the meteorite shield to
provide hemispherical protection widely enough to cover the station and
ourselves. That way we can maintain the shield for a much longer period. Once
we've made the point, which we have, that we are large, dangerous, and, if
necessary, can float motionless in the air, there's no reason to continue
doing so. With respect, sir, I think we should land sooner rather than later."
Exactly the same thoughts had been going through Fletcher's mind, but saying
so to Lieutenant Chen would have made the captain sound petty-minded in the
extreme. But a de-velopment that the other had not foreseen, at least not yet,
was that if a spider aircraft should fly into one of the pressor beams
supporting Rhabwar's weight, it and its pilot would be smashed flat into the
ground.
"Thank you, Chen," he said instead. "Your suggestion is approved. Haslam, take
us down. Dodds, kill the pressors but maintain the forward tractor to keep
that sandstorm going. Chen, how soon will the meteorite-shield modification be
ready?"
"It's difficult to be precise," said Chen. "Fairly soon."
"Try to make it sooner than that," he said.
The gliders had sheared off at Rhabwar's approach but now they were circling
back again, possibly thinking that the grounding of the ship was a sign of
weakness. All three of the spider vessels had run their prows up onto the
beach and the nearest one had its landing-ramp lowered. The first few spiders
were already crawling ashore with crossbows held at the ready. Dodds
file:///F|/rah/James%20White/White,%20James%...or%20General%2012%20-%20Double%
20Contact.txt (109 of 144) [5/21/03 10:31:17 PM]
file:///F|/rah/James%20White/White,%20James%20-%20Sector%20General%2012%20-%20
Double%20Contact.txt took a moment to check the focus of his tractor beam. The
land-ing party now numbered close on twenty, with more of them coming down the
ramps at intervals of a few seconds.
Directly in front of them a carpet of sand twenty meters in diameter and about
three inches deep rose high into the air and exploded into a cloud as the
tractor's point of focus was vibrated erratically in and out. A thick curtain
of fine, powdery sand dropped in front of and a little on top of the spiders.
For a moment they milled about uncertainly. Then Fletcher saw a spider with a
large speaking trumpet climb onto the su-perstructure of it ship to chitter
loudly at them. At once they split into two groups that crawled rapidly along
the beach in opposite directions. The sandstorm, its effect only slightly
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diminished by the fact that the line of targets was lengthening, followed
them.
The other two ships were also disgorging spiders while the gliders were flying
in tight circles above Rhabwar and the station, although fortunately not low
enough for them to hit the mete-orite shield when it came on.
"Sir," said Dodds worriedly, "the sand doesn't appear to bother them very
much, especially now that all three landing parties are strung out along the
beach. It looks as though they are trying move out of sight and circle round
behind us.
Shall I increase the power and area of focus, sir, to stir up more sand, or
maybe try to box them in by " [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]