24.
I woke up myself incapable to move me. I didn't succeed in understanding what had happened: a moment first was later in the capsule of throwing and a moment I found me involved in the molasses, where every minuscule sign was the fruit of capital efforts.
I put some other second to focus the thing there: around me there was a dark sea, made exception for a lot of whitish dots that tapped I break down him/it. From a side, huge, there was the spectacular expanse of the ground of Mars, curved to the horizon and bright for half; the shade advanced as soon as slowly a small sun it seemed to estrange from my point of observation. Behind of me, slightly to the right, over the testaccia of the robot that oppressed me with his/her mass, there was a network of unadorned steel bars: the vehicle of harvest of the mineral ones.
I had been caught, then. I worried me. I stared at Mars and then the skeletal shuttle: it didn't seem pits a relative motion there, but it owed, since I could see the fire of the motors of the aircraft that you/they pushed for the leaving from the planet. I looked with greater attention; yes, we moved there, but not with big rapidities. You/he/she had worked. Somehow, the done calculations were correct: we were not stealing I pour in thousands there the Earth of kilometers the time, but we were slowly doing a great deal it. The shuttle freighter accelerated, however, and our speed, despite the scarce power of the motor, you/he/she would be increased soon. I had earned only some time in more before having to give the definitive goodbye to Mars. It is to my life. But I didn't have to think of us.
«Ehilà, boys» I said, making a bridge among me, the transmitter of long distance on board of the ship and the astronauts in walk in the middle of the sands.
«Angel!» they howled together everybody.
«You are gotten by» it said Robin. «As it is that we can speak to us?»
«Your overall don't have transmitters able to reach me but your ship yes.»
«Understands» it said Hut. «Where you are?»
I looked by instinct around me, to angle turn: I saw part of my universe inquadrettato, defined within the leaden sweaters of a great metallic net.
«It seems both captures as a fish ball.»
Not anybody laughed.
«We gave you for dead, Angel» it said Hut gasping in perceptible way.
Observing him/it scenery that surrounded me, to the light sbieca of the sun, the shuttle that had picked up me appeared really ugly: an object spartano, with the zone wipe away occupies her from the small motor, the plant with structural functions. an only strong pylon to great deal that longitudinally raced, which the net was hooked. and the frontal one with to variegated congerie of tools for the scanning, elaboration and recording of the events. There were also some wings, useless in the space, but necessary in the rare cases in which for particularly heavy interventions of maintenance were asked in the terrestrial hangars. The net of capture was partially refolded, now, but you/he/she could unravel him up to stretch himself/herself/themselves for about ten meters in the zone around the shuttle. I felt me a compressed tantino in those sweaters; I tried to move the robot operating him/it to my way, but I met some difficulties: the half vector full of sand was me I set and it prevented the most elementary movements. I detached the robot from the hook on the vector and I climbed me on the head of the automaton. It was all right. With the strong his/her braccias I got further the big sphere making to ripple the whole metallic interlacement up to the support of the small freighter. Over the bow of the shuttle something blinked to distance: it was another ship, twin of mine, to different hundred meters from me. It was firm waiting for possible throwing. My freighter he was gradually lining up with that more distant, shortly both would have been equidistant from the planet. A vague ideuzza me he/she introduced him to the mind.
«How much misses you for the ship?» I asked.
«Ehm, has arrived ago a few minutes» it said Robin, embarrassed. «We have done before the expectation. We are out now again with the exchanges for the tracked one.»
«We have thought that you had not made her» it added Zeld, seraphic. «We wanted to go to the station of sieve. You/he/she was perhaps escaped you something.»
«Thrown time» I said. «I recommend you to return to the ship and to wait that I/you/he/she give you some information in more. To the worse you will lose few minutes. And the tracked one you can recover him/it another time.»
«Of accord. As you want you» it said Zeld, oddly docile.
So it didn't go: I wanted to talk to them, both because it was useful, both because it made me feel well, but I also had need to titillate my idea. I started two separate trials and I brought ahead them in parallel.
Three hundred meters. It was distant three hundred meters that shuttle, not very more, and its net had not been refolded: it fluttered extending here and there himself/herself/itself in a cloud of lucent sweaters without a particular form. A good target. I fought with the net that held back me; not with my poor strengths, with those of the robot. Nevertheless it was arduous to free himself/herself/themselves from that taking. The robot and I were an alone thing, by now, but it was difficult to make to move him/it in sinuous way inside that trap without entangling none of its protuberances.
«Angel, meant you.» Zeld started. «We have felt your daughter Daylight. You/he/she had tried immediately to contact you after your departure with the catapult. Then you/he/she has tried to call the ship, even if it was not waited that it worked. And instead we have received.»
I finally freed me. I jumped on the sphere, still imprisoned, to study the to make himself/herself/themselves: I wanted to jump from on the other ship there, but it was not what from few; it didn't everything exist anything of similar to a catapult, there. I could use only the strength of the braccias of my robot. However an approximate throwing would have sprung of it, those braccias had not been born for this and the probability that I/you went to insert me really in the net of the remote shuttle it was low rather.
«Ah yes?» it did the myself of the other trial. «And as it is?»
«Worried» it said Robin.
There was another possibility: the limb aspirapolveri of my gigantic friend; if I/you had put me on the back of the forearm, you/he/she would have been able me to shoot away to a discreet speed.
«The point is that. we have understood better who macaws» it said Zeld, slowly. «And what. I am sorry if we have treated you as a simple iron piece.»
You/he/she had really done only him him, but it was not the case to subtilize.
«Approved excuses» it said the other Angel.
It served material to inhale; material that was incorporated from the arm and expelled to high speed over the elbow. If to that point I/you was found me there, the throw to tall pressure would have projected away me so fast to be made the shuttle reach me in a lightning. It didn't serve air, luckily; in the space the thing could work very well however. The atmosphere of Mars is too become less frequent, the aspirator could not found on the principle of the difference pressoria between the mouth of entry and that of exit. This way the arm was a minuscule accelerator maser, economic and easy to build. It grabbed everything how much he/she introduced him in the small zone of space near the orifice of entry and it captured him/it putting again him/it from the opposite side with the whole power of the minuscule Williamson that fed the robot.
My trial gossiper made suspicious him to the sudden one.
«You won't have told her that I was doing?» I exclaimed.
«No» it said Robin. «We would have been. without heart.»
Where did I find him/it the material to inhale? Be', I had loaded him me same on board of the sphere. To who had asked subsequently me him, I would have said that I had foreseen everything since the beginning.
"It is not improvised, in the space" I would have pontificated; or one of the usual lies that him propinano in certain breakers.
With caution, I opened the great mouth of the sphere and I predisposed the arm of the vacu
um cleaner. I aimed the arm in direction of the distant net, as he aims a rifle, lining up the forms of it so that the elbow of the limb overlapped prospetticamente to the center of the net. But I had to correct the draught, I knew him/it: at that time I was moving me in comparison to my target with a component of non negligible motion. I had to calculate me that component. I was able of to appraise the times with a lot of precision, luckily.
«You are convinced that is ended, for me» I felt that I said.
«No, it seems you!» it said Robin.
«Bad liar. I have intention to do the possible one to return.»
Fixing the remote shuttle, it was evident that we were approaching there to her of sbieco; I saw the tilted shuttle, with the thin legs, prospetticamente not overlapped. Since the freighters aimed both to the catapult, you/they would have had to stir on parallel routs. Then estranging me from Mars, there would have been a moment in which you/they would be found line up. I knew the dimensions of the shuttles; I calculated with good precision the angle of approach to the remote shuttle, then I focused me on this and I made two squeezes of eyes, for so to say, calculating the half-time of it and memorizing her two positions of the freighter to the beginning and at the end of the interval. I made then the relationship among the dimensions of an anterior leg of my future freighter, as it appeared me from there, and those real; I now knew to that distance was found and I also knew the distance among the colons that the space delimited that I had crossed in the half-time; separated this value for the same half-time and. voilà, here is relative my speed: trecentocinquanta kilometers the time.
I esteemed the distance of the net target in the moment in which the two aircrafts would have been more neighbors: trecentododici meters. Now the unknown less ponderable: that push would have engraved me the aspirator? A datum I had him, thanks to the exabyte: the power of expulsion in continuous operation. I knew my mass, so I could draw my acceleration. But I would have gotten further as soon as I was pushed away and I could not be certain that the throw of sand would always have struck next to my baricentro; so, to have a precise idea of my speed of throwing I would have had to limit at once the push fixed, rather brief. All it took is programming the robot for this. I regulated the aspirator to impose me an acceleration of ventun g for mean according to: I would be squirted away to around one hundred meters the second and I would have employed three seconds to arrive on the net, a little anymore. In the meantime I would have moved back of three hundred meters to the, however, because of the my three hundred fifty an hour. I otherwise directed the arm, folding up him/it to around quarantacinque degrees and aiming at a zone in front of my true objective. I was ready. I had only to wait for the perfect alignment among the two shuttles. I inserted a foot alettato of the robot in the belly of the sphere and I enlivened the inside. A nuvolone of dust surrounded me. Not could use the bucket I helped me with the great pick, that revealed him more profit than I believed. Sands slowly escaped as I wanted. I emptied half sphere and I carried as I was able the material around the aspirator. Sand constituted a kind of all one compact. It seemed a big ball of dust in procinto to be faced by a brave housekeeper.
"Fire to the dusts" I told me.
I placed me correct above the elbow and I made the last jokes on the capoccione of the robot sticking out my braccias to succeed in arriving us. In that while I was being attacked by the funk; I fought for confining her/it inside my trial lobbyist. The succeededs there. I could normally talk to the astronauts.
«We make the typhus for you» it said Robin with heat, but without believing at all me. He/she didn't ask me where I was; it was for delicacy, I believe, and also because it didn't hold him/it remarkable: anything did for them I didn't have escape anymore.
«Thanks» I murmured.
The distant freighter in perspective had the overlapped zampacces, now: the two ships were lined up.
A wince, the time to refold the limbs on my body and there was something similar to a prolonged explosion. I quickly rotated here is on myself, but with the vision to everything field I succeeded in directing very well me: the robot was already invisible, the net that had captured me made smaller him so in hurry to give me a feeling of dizziness. Then, when I was starting to think about the target having missed, I sank in a soft and sticky material that damped my motion, at first timidly, then with the whole virulence of a system calculated for tons of mineral. I decelerated and I stayed me in brutal way. It was a true hit, little missed that lost the senses. Again I had neglected to calculate something that concerned my body,: the strong accelerations or decelerations I was not invulnerable you/they could damage me. I would have had to remember in expectancy it. They wanted us some second to take back me. For the time being I was safe.
«We are reentering in the ship, Angel» Hut informed me.
«Given me a few minutes» I warned. «Soon I will know you to say more something on your companions.»
I received me and I taken to walk on the net; I seemed really a ragnetto, now. I reached the point of attack on the long pylon of the aircraft, therefore I left the net and runs the few meters that separated me from the bow. I regretted it, but I had to make the vandal. I found the center of control of the ship, correct beside the long telescope that aimed toward Mars. I forced the form and I inserted me to the inside. I was comfortable. I revealed the electronics and I saw that I could access the system from the outside, all it took is having the correct cavetto. I didn't have him, but there was around there material that you/he/she would not have served anymore. With my versatile hands I decomposed the components that had to act from navigator for the return on the Earth and them riutilizzai to my comfort. I now had to also open myself to access the inside interface; the form that allocava the exabyte had everything the necessary. Me connettei. You introduced a window from the rough design, with the various ones (few) options. At the end, what could do indeed it was the download of the data; I could not memorize them inside of me: there was a lot of stuff, there inside. However I could view them while I was unloading them, all it took is doing him/it to the correct speed. I started; I suppressed the trial lobbyist, that its duty had done, and I activated a trial that the download replied to the computer of the ship on Mars.
«Hey» it made Zeld. «Here quite a lot data are arriving. Are you you, Angel?»
«No, Little Red Riding Hood. Certainly that I am me.»
I increased at the most the speed of download: I could also view in form very accelerated, eliminating instantly the useless or redundant images, that were the most greater part. He/she remained in mind the main point. The astronauts limited him to record the information without trying to interpret her. I individualized the point of the recording in which the dragonfly had made his/her appearance next to the catapult. The telescope on board some shuttle was of quality: it distinguished very well him the vehicle but not the occupants. I poured again that image on a monitor of the room control of the ship. I heard the murmurs of the personnel but any comment. I continued, keeping on sending images to that monitors to make participates the astronauts. You saw someone who went down from the dragonfly and it entered the station of sieve: it was an alone person. After a few minutes it went out of the station and it operated the crane of the dragonfly; we saw the vehicle that dispatched the operations of load of the ready material to the throwing on the catapult, therefore it effected the real throwing. We assisted to four throwing; as so many were enough, evidently, to polish up the store of stoccaggio that in my visit I had found empty. The siloses were not loaded with chemical solvents; the usual astronaut, went up again alone always on the aircraft, and you/he/she departed for unknown beaches. The useful data ended there, with the disappearance of the dragonfly over the visual field of the telescope.
«An only man. Or woman» it said Zeld. «What it means?»
«Nothing» it made Robin. «You/he/she could be Benson or Lidya or another person that you/he/she has taken possession some vehicle.»
«But whe
ther to make the throwing and not to supply the station of sieve? In beard to the procedure, then» it objected Hut.
I had a precise idea, by the way, but I preferred to hold me her for me.
«Uhm» it said Robin. «You/he/she could grow stronger the thesis of a third character appropriated him of the ship.»
«Let's assemble us on the important things, please» it suggested Hut. «Lidya and Benson where I/you/they am?»
They started to discuss as little boys, so I intervened.
«If you allow, it was not that the correct question» I said lifting the voice. «Your companions could be dead who knows where, or imprisoned, or even they are calm to viaggiucchiare on the dragonfly. If they are dead, you/they can be anywhere, but there is not a great urgency to reach them. If they are imprisoned, I imagine has been captured on the dragonfly. If he is making a cruise among the sands of Mars, they will do her/it on board of the dragonfly.»
«Understands» it said Robin. «We look for the dragonfly.»
«Already» I continued. «If we prolong the astute run that the dragonfly has followed while she was leaving the visual field of the telescope, where we arrive?»
Zeld you have to visualize one some image of Mars, there in the room control, because I felt them stutter" it looks here, you go of there, no here no" and so street, different times. But then they were all in agreement ones.
«Valles Marineris» it said Robin. «Lontanuccia, but there the only other mining concession of the city meets him on the whole surface of Mars, even if it is not active yet.»
«The only logical destination» it commented Hut.
Valles Marineris. A gigantic long canyon cinquemila kilometers, wide five hundred and deep five or you are. It crossed the planet to the height of the equator as a gigantic slash on the surface Martian. Gives his/her enormous structure it was not clear thing you/he/she could have produces her/it: certainly not the erosion from atmospheric agents or water. A similar extension didn't have analogies with the superficial structures on the Earth.
I made an express calculation: appraised the speed of move of the dragonfly and the distances by to cover for the mine, it was to see effortless the time of arrival to destination. Admitted that the shuttle had maintained direction and constant speed, obviously. I communicated him/it to the astronauts and Robin a second it hesitated.
«They have already arrived or they are about to arrive» concluded.
«We go» it also exhorted Hut.
«We are not police officers but., yes, we go down there» it arranged Zeld. «We could save the skin to Lidya or Benson, or to both.»
«Angel, has felt» it said Robin. «We go there. And you?»
«I will get by» I said. «And not to make that face. I see here also her from.»
Beaten tired, but the woman snickered. Then, a light sigh.
«We see us Angel» it said. «We immediately depart, with the ship. There are luckily good places to land next to the mine. Ah, is liked there, Daylight. It seems a good girl.»
«It is him/it. We see soon us» I said me.
It was not entirely after all impossible.