Shiva Descending by Gregory Benford

Author:Gregory Benford [BENFORD, GREGORY]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780575118386
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2011-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

“Never mind what they did, just get them out of here!” Chuck spoke loudly, his throat raw. The Provost Marshal on the screen looked back impassively. “Major, just dump them outside the gate, damn it! I don’t have time to get tied up in prosecuting saboteurs or nuts or anything else. Kick ’em out, and let me fix up the damage.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll have an order cut for your signature and then these six will be transported to the Main Gate.”

“Yeah, yeah, fine,” Chuck said wearily. He snapped the connection and sank back in his chair. He wrinkled his nose. “Who stinks in here?”

“You do,” Lisa said, smiling. “When was the last time you stopped to shower? Much less sleep?”

“I’ll sleep after,” he growled. “Okay, what do you have for me?”

“Omega is ready. We might even be overtrained.” She tried on a smile, but it couldn’t hold on and slipped away. The nagging fear they all had was what was coming to be called the horseshoe nail. One tiny fact, one bit of information, a single piece of equipment that might somehow be overlooked, then turn out to be vital. Already they were almost ridiculously redundant in backup systems, in training, in computer simulations. Almost everyone could do almost everyone else’s job, and that included the Russians, who had the hardest job—that of learning all the American equipment.

“No horseshoe nails missing?”

Lisa shrugged. “Who can tell? Maybe when we get there we’ll find we need a hairpin or a rubber band …” The light tone of her voice died as she saw the expression on Bradshaw’s face. “Sorry.”

“It’s getting tougher to get things in here all the time, you know. We’re in a goddamn state of siege. The Army had to push back perimeters ten kilometers ever since that renegade National Guard unit knocked down the chopper bringing in the wounded from the Orlando airport. That goddamn Gabriel is stirring up another riot. He’s saying he’ll have half a million here within three or four days. How the hell are we going to stop half a million?”

Lisa said nothing. The heat-seeking bazooka teams from the National Guard unit had damaged the gantry on Pad Thirty-Seven, knocked a piece out of the old Vertical Assembly Building, and bagged three helicopters. Sniper fire had accounted for over sixty deaths and eighty wounded. The Army had been very rough in pushing the mob outside back to new and distant perimeters. They had used tanks, planes, choppers, gas, and bayonets … and lost another twenty-two men and women.

The defections had continued, both from the Army and from NASA, though there had been none in the last four days. Evidently those who were going to run had done so. In a way it was a relief. Maybe they could count on those that remained.

The Coast Guard had been almost totally free of desertions and their heavy offshore patrols had bagged everything from powerboats filled with armed Gabriels to frogmen coming in with plastic explosives. They had even captured ten Shiva Dancers who wanted to freak out on the launchpads.

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