Страница 100 из 281
Chapter 3
Du
They had drawn straws for Cornwall. This was the minesite that sent out hunting parties and made it death for Scots to go south. The Psychlos at this place, over the centuries, had gu
He and his copilot Dwight had drawn the long straw to the envy of their fellow pilots. They had drilled the navigation. No Scot had ever gotten within a hundred miles of this minesite in over a thousand years and little was actually known of it, but they had absorbed what there was.
They had lain all night, quite relaxed, warmly dressed for stratosphere flying. They had heard the warning horns go for the final firing of the semia
Wide-eyed and thrilled, they had watched Jo
The recoil had been a bit disconcerting for it had slewed the plane out of position with concussion. But all was well. They had vaulted their plane into the sky on schedule. They had seen the planetwide radio towers collapse in a tangle of cables behind them, hit by both the concussion of recoil and bazooka fire. A twelve-hour radio silence had begun successfully. Ample time for the farthest minesite to be reached without any warning.
At two thousand miles an hour, one hundred thousand feet up, they had shifted the clock and come down to normal Psychlo approach levels to a nighttime minesite. There it was!
Sca
Lighted steam was coming out of some shafts in the hills that must be five miles deep. Smelter chimneys belched curling, green smoke. Warehouses stood in bold outline. And there were the glowing domes of the compound! Target one.
But Du
The silly apes down there lit up the whole landing area for him! It gleamed like a bloody stage. They thought he was simply some nonscheduled Psychlo flight. Bless radio silence.
And Du
Right at the side of the landing stage was a huge wheel. Du
By Du
Du
It all went okay just up to that point. But now a Psychlo in a little guardhouse they had not spotted, only ten feet from that bus bar, stepped out and stared at Du
“The Tolneps!" screamed the guard.
Before Du
Regardless of what Tolneps might be, Du
Du
The battle plane soared. Du
They reverted to plan.
With guns set to “No Flame, Maximum Concussion” they roared across the compound.
The domes squashed like punctured balloons.
They raced across the lines of warehouses and knocked their roofs flat.
For good measure they made another pass, this time dropping nonradiation,
antiperso
One gun opened up at them and the plane took a jolt. They flashed down and squashed the gun with a single blast.
And that was the end of the base. The Psychlo Intergalactic Mining Company did not believe in lavishing money on safety equipment in any department, apparently. And hadn't Jo
From what they could gather, standing by way up in the air, the creatures in the compound had been unable to get the masks on before the domes were smashed, for there certainly wasn't any mob coming out.
They hung around for a while, occasionally knocking out an isolated vehicle and a stray guard.
It really was quiet down there after that.
Then they saw something on their radar screen. It was an incoming transport. Abruptly they recalled transport plane engines leaving after the incoming firing. This thing had been slow-poking its way home and they had passed it. Good!
Du
They just sat there. The landing lights were now on. Any Psychlo employee left alive was not concentrating on coming out.
The transport plane landed. The Psychlos got out, fooled around with baggage. Then the pilot got out. The Psychlos walked in a mob toward the compound. Then they began to feel something was wrong and stopped.
The Psychlo pilot reached for his belt gun.
Du
Du
Du
Seeing that Dwight was well clear, Du
He soared up and the dump roared in a lovely green-blue flash.
He again checked to see where Dwight had gotten to, saw he was safe. Du