Tower and Hive 01 - Rowan by McCaffrey Anne

Author:McCaffrey, Anne [McCaffrey, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780441735761
Google: M9pTXwAACAAJ
Amazon: 0441735762
Publisher: Ace
Published: 1991-09-02T04:00:00+00:00

PART THREE DENEB

It was black, yes, but the capsule made the jump with no rotation to remind her of an old terror. She felt the unfamiliar multiple-mind touch hers, felt both urgent need and gratitude. Inclining to it, she followed the path it showed her.

Her carrier rocked as it landed roughly in the cradle.

Simultaneous to the apology for the landing, she heard the gasping, clanking off-torque rattles of a malfunctioning generator. If the multiple-minds had gestalted with that, she was bloody lucky to have reached her destination at all.

Opening the canopy, she lifted herself out of the carrier, fighting to hide additional dismay at what she saw. The generator, apparently hastefully installed at the side of what had once been an airfield control tower, gave one last wheeze as a stanchion collapsed.

A cloud of black, oily smoke rose to obscure the mechanical corpse.

From the temporary tower a group of people emerged, one of them carrying a child across her shoulder.

The Rowan reached out and recognized the dominant mind of the merge: Isthia Raven, Jeff's mother. Of the ten minds which had participated, only hers remained relatively unstressed by what the Rowan knew would have been a tremendous effort for a novice team.

My profound gratitude, she sent gently to them all. How badly is Jeff hurt? she asked directly of his mother.

Isthia Raven looked to her right, to an older man with such a strong resemblance to Jeff that she wasn't surprised to discover that he was an uncle.

"A freak accident," Rhodri said, guilt/grief/concern vivid in his mind as he spoke. "We'd found an unexploded beetle bomb. We're supposed to let them (and a thumb jerked skyward indicated the Fleet in orbit above Deneb) ". . . neutralize 'em but the fardling idiots set their great flaming pod down so hard it jarred the detonating mechanism and it exploded. Jeff tried to shield us and forgot to duck! Damn fool altruist. I told him and I told him that you gotta think of number one first." As he spoke, she caught a replay of the scene from his mind, which was an orderly one for all the present turmoil of self-recriminations. She saw the cylinder uncovered in the trench it had plowed on the edge of the City; saw the disposal group's tentative investigation; saw the large armored Fleet pod come down, displacing dust and dirt in the ungainly landing, heard the shouts, saw the bomb's disintegration, and the searing rain of fragments and even their deflection. Then she saw Jeff's body start to rotate, stagger, and fall.

"The worst is the chest injury," his mother said. And from her clear mind, she showed an all too graphic image of Jeff's lacerated body and the long deep wound across the left pectoral. "The medics say it's only shock but I couldn't reach him. I thought you might be able to. Time is critical." "Where is he?" the Rowan replied with a calmness and assurance she did not feel. Especially as she sensed that Isthia Raven was withholding some information.

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