The Precipice (gt-8, taw-1) by Ben Bova
Author:Ben Bova [Bova, Ben]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: sf_space
ISBN: 978-0-312-84876-7
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 2001-11-15T00:00:00+00:00
SPACEPORT ARMSTRONG
Pancho stared across the desolate, blast-scarred expanse of the launch center and wrinkled her nose unhappily. âIt sure looks like a kludge.â Standing beside her in the little observation bubble, Dan had to agree. The fusion drive looked like the work of a drunken plumber: bulbous spheres of diamond that sparkled in the harsh unfiltered sunlight drenching the lunar surface, the odd shapes of the MHD channel, the pumps that fed the fuel to the reactor chamber, radiator panels and the multiple rocket nozzles, all connected by a surrealistic maze of pipes and conduits. The entire contraption was mounted on the platformlike deck of an ungainly, spraddle-legged booster that stood squat and silent on the circular launch pad of smoothed lunar concrete. The observation chamber was nothing more than a bubble of glassteel poking up above the barren floor of Alphonsusâs giant ringwall. Barely big enough for two people to stand in, the chamber was connected by a tunnel to the control center of the launch complex. âWe didnât build her for beauty,â Dan said. âBesides, sheâll look better once weâve mated her with the other modules.â
Subdued voices crackled from the intercom speaker set into the smoothed wall of the chamber just below the rim of the transparent blister. âPan Asia oh-one-niner on final descent,â said the pilot of an incoming shuttle. âWe have you on final, oh-one-niner,â answered the calm female voice of a flight controller. âPad four.â
âPad four, copy.â
Dan looked up into the star-flecked sky and saw a fleeting glint of light.
âRetrorockets,â Pancho muttered.
âOn the curve,â said the flight controller.
Another quick burst. Dan could make out the shuttle now, a dark angular shape falling slowly out of the sky, slim landing legs extended. âDown the pipe, oh-one-niner,â said the woman controller. She sounded almost bored.
It all seemed to be happening in slow motion. Dan watched the shuttle come down and settle on the pad farthest away from the one on which the fusion rocket was sitting, waiting for clearance to take off. The shuttle pilot announced, âOh-oneniner is down. All thrusters off.â
Pancho let out a puff of pent-up breath.
Surprised, Dan asked, âWhite knuckles? You?â
She grinned, embarrassed. âI always get torqued up, unless Iâm driving the buggy.â
Glancing at his wristwatch, Dan said, âWell, we ought to get clearance to launch as soon as they offload the shuttle.â
With a nod, Pancho said, âIâd better get suited up.â
âRight,â said Dan.
The fusion system itself was the last part of their spacecraft to be launched into orbit around the Moon. The propellant tanks and the crew and logistics modules were already circling a hundred kilometers overhead. Pancho would supervise the assembly robots that would link all the pieces together. Dan went with her along the tunnel and into the locker room where the astronauts donned their spacesuits. Amanda was already there, ready to help check her out. Dan realized it had been a long time since heâd checked out anyone or donned a spacesuit himself. Spaceflight is so routine nowadays that you can come and go from the Earth to the Moon just like you ride a plane or a bus, he thought.
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