Castle Perilous Book 7 by OEM User

Author:OEM User
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-02-03T23:31:29.701000+00:00

180 John

DeChancie

CASTLE SPELLBOUND

181

"Aye aye, Jeremy dearest. Let me swivel a little." Isis turned toward the control panel. Jeremy grunted. "Oh, am I hurting you, dear?"

"Nah, it's fine. Go ahead."

Isis began flipping switches and studying readouts. "You could probably do this- better without virtual body," Jeremy commented.

"Not true, hon. A physical presence gives me an intuitive feel for the physical parameters."

"Oh. Not that I don't like your virtual body."

"I know you do, dear. And I know that you know it's not really all that virtual."

"Uh, yeah. Um."

"Don't be shy." Isis turned her head to Melanie. "He's awfully shy."

Melanie nodded.

Isis resumed her scrutiny of the control panel.

"Shore wish we had our tools," Luster said, "if we're gonna have t' fix 'er agin."

"They would come in handy," Jeremy agreed.

"You can use the tools in the ship's emergency tool kit," Isis said.

"What tool kit is that?" Jeremy asked.

"There is a very small compartment on the port side of the undercarriage, near the secondary positron generator," Isis said. "That's it."

"Is that whut that is?" Luster said, surprised. "Ah opened that up oncet, and there was all these funny-looking rods and things in there."

"Well, they're tools for alien hands," Isis said, continuing to work as she talked. "This ship wasn't built by human beings, you know."

"Wull, ah figgered that's whut they was, but ah don't rightly know iffen we can use 'em."

"Unfortunately, Luster dear, they're all we have to work with."

Lester chuckled. "Wull, in that case, ma'am, ah figger we ain't got no choice but t' try and use

'em."

"That's the spirit, Luster. Oh, dear." Jeremy said, "What's up?"

Isis clucked and shook her head. "I'm afraid it's a hardware glitch, Jeremy dear. We'll have to put down and make repairs."

"Rats. I hate it when this happens." "Worse things could happen, Jeremy."

"We didn't even want to go out into the universes. We just wanted to get away from that nut stuff back at the castle. We wouldn't even have-"

"Major malfunction!" Isis was peering intently at a cluster of red lights that had just come on.

Jeremy tried to peer around Isis's head. "What now?" "Jeremy, honey, we just lost the main graviton flux inducer."

"There's a backup, maybe?"

"Afraid not. This craft never had one installed." Melanie asked, "What does a graviton flux thingee do?" The craft began to pitch forward. The horizon crawled up the view port:

"A graviton flux inducer is the thing that generates the antigravity field," Jeremy said. "And that's what keeps the ship up in the air."

Melanie's heart did a flip-flop. "And that means we're going to . . . ?"

"Crash," Jeremy said, scowling. "Boy, I hate it when this happens."

KEEP

-LOWEST LEVELS

THERE WAS MUCH CLINK AND CLASH Of steel against steel in the sitting room-or what was left of the sitting room. The fancy furniture lay overturned. Glass shelves were shattered, their objets d'art strewn over the carpet or smashed against stone. Tapestries lay trampled across the floorboards.

Gene swung mightily, connected, and sent his opponent's banged-up shield flying. Unprotected, the gladiator braced to parry Gene's next assault, but mistook a low feint for the real thing.

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