Crisis on Cheiron [1967] (Ace Double H-027) {PDF} by Juanita Coulson

Author:Juanita Coulson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ace Books
Published: 1967-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

VI

Sideslipping in the west wind, Carl drove the skimmer through the smoke and rising heat, banking down for a sloppy landing on the taxi strip. Nubi was out almost before the skids touched, running.

Carl begrudged the milliseconds it took him to kill the power, then he too was out, overtaking Nubi almost at once.

Flames gouged through the windows at the front of the school quonset, licking up around the curved roof, hurling sparks and smoke skyward to be whipped away in the evening wind. Workmen, both Terran and Cheironi, tried desperately to edge close; they bolted forward, determined, then reluctantly retreated, arms shielding their faces against the heat.

“Where’s that fire unit?”

It was Hamilton roaring the demand. The company representative had just withdrawn from an attempt to reach the building, and now he swung around to look toward the hangars, his handsome face stamped with anguish, dramatically half-lighted by the flames.

Carl caught Hamilton's arm, shook him. “Is there anyone inside?” The crackle of the fire and the cries and clamor of the workmen hashed dialogue.

“What?” Hamilton stared at him a moment, shock in his eyes. "Race! Where did you . . . yes. Yes! The kids! Marcy was having a party for . . .”

Something snapped loudly near the quonset’s roof, splintered, and a cascade of flames and smoke exploded upward into the dark. A scream rose on the cool air—high-pitched, frantic, human. It was followed by shrill childish cries. Carl was suddenly cold, despite the blistering heat bf the fire.

“Nubi!” Owens puffed up beside them. "Thank God the boy was with you, Carl! I saw it from across the . . .”

"You can’t reach it from the front,” Carl cut across the Directors words. He grasped Hamilton by the shoulder and pointed. "The back—it hasn’t got that far yet. If we can get some equipment . . . from that scream, they’re in the rear of the building.. ”

“Yes!” Hamilton was already moving, Carl right behind him. They pounded past the scorching building into the flickering shadows illuminating the area behind the quonset. The company representative bellowed commands as he ran, all authority and sharp organization. “Pete, Sandy, Tai-yo—get a line into that well. Hey! Keina, Thad—drive bars, benders, wreckers, cutters—step on it! Back here! And for God’s sake get me some light, Charlie!”

Carl slid on some loose gravel, scraped his palms painfully against the stones, regained his balance and skidded up beside Hamilton as the representative began kicking frantically at the native lumber sheeting the back of the quonset. Somebody handed Carl a crowbar, and he shoved the wedge between two planks and began prying. The light was almost gone; he could barely see what he was doing in the dim reflected glare thrown by the fire at the front of the building. Then Charlie or someone else rigged a flood-arc, and the wall of the quonset suddenly gleamed in the blinding blue-white light.

Racked with a horror that they were moving too slowly, too ineffectually, Carl put all his weight against the crowbar and was rewarded with a splintering crack as the plank split loose.

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