Hellflower (1957) by George O. Smith

Author:George O. Smith [Smith, George O.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-05-26T04:00:00+00:00

14

Carolyn’s eyes were fastened on the telescope, her attention was rapt. There was a tiny signal-pip at the extreme range on the long-range radar that controlled the telescope, but the object was still too far away. The range was closing slowly, but they would meet somewhere out there, three hundred million miles above Terra to the astronomical North.

Farradyne knew his instruments and his attention was therefore free to think of other matters. Carolyn was busy at the “scope,” so Farradyne carefully and quietly slipped a long fluorescent lamp from its terminals and stood it carefully on one end beside him. He balanced it carefully and took a couple of silent steps toward Carolyn before the tube lost its balance and fell to the floor with an ear-shattering explosion.

It even shocked Farradyne, who knew it was coming.

Carolyn reacted like a person stabbed with a red-hot spear. Every muscle in her body tensed as her nervous system twitched and she stood there for a full ten seconds as stiff as a figure of concrete while the shock gripped her. Then adrenalin poured into her veins and she started to bundle up muscularly at the same time that she realized that there really was no danger. Farradyne could see the relaxation of her body taking place almost inch by inch.

The tension crept out of her silently until her breasts began to fall in a shuddering exhalation. Then she sighed, and her tuneful voice was a wordless trill of relief.

Farradyne’s attention snapped into full awareness and he felt a thrill of exultation run through him. Carolyn Niles’ voice was a quavering trill in three lilting tones.

Then the spell was gone and she relaxed against a brace holding one hand under her left breast and breathing heavily. “What on earth—?”

“Lamp fell out of its moorings,” said Farradyne. “My fault. That’s one of the pre-flight check-ups that I didn’t have time to make this morning. Stay where you are and I’ll clean up this mess.”

“Do you mind if I sit down? I haven’t been that startled in years. I thought the ship had exploded.”

“Park yourself in the pilot’s seat,” he said. “But be careful. Broken fluorescent tubing is doubly dangerous. The gook they put on the inside is as poisonous as hell and the glass is as sharp as a razor.”

She nodded and picked her way through the glass. She looked up at him and said, “You don’t seem to have been startled at all.”

“I had a few millionths of a second to get my nerves in readiness,” he said. “I saw it come down. You took a beating.”

“I guess I did,” she admitted weakly.

Farradyne laughed; it was a forced laugh but he hoped it was convincing. “Someone told me once that when a person is excited he always reverts to his native tongue.” Her eyes widened and her mouth started to open, but Farradyne went on as though he hadn’t been watching avidly for some sign. “But I didn’t think your native tongue was Upper Irish Banshee.

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