To The Tombaugh Station by Wilson Tucker

Author:Wilson Tucker [Tucker, Wilson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Ace Books
Published: 2016-09-21T23:00:00+00:00

12

Webb’s notion of evasive action was methodical and unspectacular but it followed the book and occupied some forty-three hours of ship’s time. Near the end of that period the derelict was clearly delineated on the screen, despite the radar’s refusal to give up its dancing ghost.

He slept fitfully, ate two or three skimpy meals, watched the radar screen and the chronometer, and sometimes sat in a morose hump on the deck as the hours wormed past him. Messages trickled in from Torcon and then Amarcon. Speed and drift data on the derelict were supplied him as per his request and he worked out the respective trackings, in a necessarily rougher form, to satisfy himself that the towers knew what they were talking about. The ships were riding a collision course.

After that he got off a blistering dispatch to Amarillo protesting the contiguous routing which caused the foul-up, but Amarillo prudently neglected to answer just then. Some time later, Amarillo mumbled something vague about an Official Inquiry, but Webb dismissed the placatory note as a transparent preliminary to a whitewash.

Toronto took over operations.

Toronto continued to feed him figures on the derelict’s position and continued to demand his own, along with hourly deceleration data. As time passed, Webb noticed that the sense of urgency and alarm disappeared from between the fines of Toronto’s communications, an absence which informed him that the danger of smashing into the floater was likewise diminishing.

But with the gradual passing of the danger the original question returned to confront him. He thought he detected a certain subtlety to the incoming messages, a certain sly inquisitive value not quite strong enough to lie between the lines. No one put it in words. No one hinted or questioned or pushed, but he knew Toronto was thinking and talking about it. Toronto was waiting him out—waiting to see what he >chose to do about the floater.

Webb dozed and thought about his choice.

The bucket fell tail-first toward Saturn, still braking to the limits of its debilitated capacity. Webb allowed it to fall unchecked, not wanting to alter course too far from the taped ellipse until he was forced to do so.

The teletype pulled him from the dreamless dozing.

YANDRO TO XANTHUS: HAVE FLOATER ON MY SCREEN. X

He threw a hasty glance at his screen and found the two of them. Yandro was several hours ahead of him, but far over near the edge of the BG sector.

XANTHUS TO YANDRO: SCAT. SALVAGE

RIGHTS MINE. X

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