Core Punch: An Uneasy Future by Jones Pauline Baird

Author:Jones, Pauline Baird [Jones, Pauline Baird]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780996056694
Amazon: B00KWAD9Q0
Goodreads: 22468529
Publisher: Pauline Baird Jones
Published: 2014-06-09T07:00:00+00:00

5

Joe woke to a spinning, tumbling world. Nothing to tell him what was up, what was down. Vi was unconscious. Perhaps it was luck that a change in the wind had lifted them up into heavier winds, rather than slamming them into the ground. It was the only good news, though it did not feel good. Even the nanite felt a bit seasick.

The skimmer shrieked a protest at the unkind stress impacting its old seams and joints. Another direction change flung him sideways in his harness. Stars spun across his view in the opposite direction of the skimmer. The console flickered once, then came to life, not with uplink data or communications, but with something.

Did you—

No. Perhaps the structural stresses have knocked something…together.

Joe didn’t believe it either, but a reprieve, even one possibly provided for nefarious purposes, was still a reprieve. It was as well Lurch had allowed him to lose consciousness, if its enemy had caused this “fix.” Fighting against the centrifugal force pinning him in the sling, he managed to hit the drive control transfer. The reasons they hadn’t done it before no longer mattered. If it didn’t work, well, as Vi liked to say, “Crapeau happens. A lot.”

Joe was not surprised when control transferred and with some speed. If it did not want them to die, something had to change and quickly. Did it wish the game to continue? Did it now watch them?

Use attitude control, then the power boost when the skimmer levels out.

Joe managed to depress attitude control, then grabbed the controls. Did what he could to bring the skimmer to a point where it could be steered once more. The shriek of stressed metal increased. He feared it was too late, but slowly, almost imperceptibly the skimmer began to level out. Rotation also slowed, then ceased. The cross-wind compensators kicked on, assisting the leveling, and the skimmer resumed forward progress.

Now.

It was only after he punched it, he wondered at the wisdom of accelerating toward the unknown. But they knew what they had here. And it was done. He hit the back of the sling harder than before. Apparently whoever had designed this boost had been quite serious about it. He saw stars once more, almost as many as on his journey here….

Like a rocket, the skimmer passed through the outer band of the storm into skies that were not wholly clear, but better than what they’d left. The boost sputtered and died, taking almost all their fuel with it. That was the bad news, as Vi liked to say. The good news, almost directly ahead he saw, outlined against the sinking sun, the stark shape of what had been the New Orleans Old airport.

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