They walked into a bay and encountered their first furniture. Small benches, on a scale for the crickets. "But none for the larger species," said Nightingale.
They were a type of plastic, and they, too, seemed to have endured well.
Ramps led to both lower and higher levels. They went down, where they found more inscriptions, some in passageways, some on the walls of individual cubicles. These were at Hutch's eye level. Possibly a bit higher.
The offices and corridors seemed designed for the use of the hawks. The placement of inscriptions, and the size of the doors, supported that thesis.
Hutch wished the fog would go away so she could get a good look at her surroundings. "They brought everybody cross-country, some maybe by air, certainly some by hovercraft."
"How'd the hovercraft get up here?" The one they'd seen could never have climbed the mountain.
"That's a detail, Randy. They probably took them to an airport somewhere, and flew them up."
"Must have been one hell of an operation. I think I'd like to meet the hawks."
XXX
Life is a walk in the fog. Most people don't know that. They're fooled by the sunlight into thinking they can see what's ahead. But it's the reason they are forever getting lost or falling into ditches or committing matrimony.
— Gregory MacAllister, The Marriage Manual
Hours to breakup (est): 33
The asteroid was almost spherical. It was somewhat more than a kilometer in diameter, contained within a metal web that was itself attached to the assembly by means of a plate.
Janet watched an Outsider team descend onto the 'plate and begin to cut it loose from the assembly. When they were finished, only one shaft, the Alpha, would remain attached. And only 320 kilometers of that.
John Drummond oversaw the action on a bank of screens. He was charged with monitoring all the Outsider operations: the asteroid units, the four teams that would shortly go outside on each of the ships, the five that were now being dropped along the assembly to sever the Alpha from the bands that held the structure together, and the net unit that was en route with Miles Chastain.
She didn't particularly like Drummond, who behaved as if anyone not involved in advanced mathematics was wasting her life. There was a lot of pressure on him at the moment, and she understood that, but Janet had concluded that if circumstances were normal, he'd still be a jerk.
Their pilot's name was Frank. Frank didn't care much for Drummond either, and probably for the same reasons. She could hear it in his voice, but if Drummond noticed, he paid no attention. While Janet watched their teams spread out, Frank turned in his seat and informed them that one of the Star shuttles would be alongside in a few minutes. That would be Miles and Phil Zossimov, who wanted to get a look at the net.
"Okay, Frank." Drummond glanced down at his instruments. "We'll start in three minutes." He brought the asteroid up on his screen, rotated it, leaned forward, plumped his chin on his fist, and directed the AI to show him the proposed line where they would cut the net. The area where the plate connected to the assembly had been designated the north pole. A cursor appeared just off to one side of the plate and circled the asteroid, passing quite close to the south pole.
Janet looked out at the net, which was visible only when the shuttle's lights hit it the right way. Its links were narrow, no more than a finger's width, and they were closely connected, the interstices small enough that a human being could not have squeezed through.
Drummond admitted freely that, once they began cutting it, there was no way to be sure at precisely which point the asteroid would come loose. That lent a degree of uncertainty to the operation, but he seemed confident there was no possibility the rock would cause damage or threaten the team now on the far side of the plate.
She couldn't help noticing how close the shuttle was and wondered whether Drummond had considered the possibility it might come their way.
"Why will it go anywhere at all?" she asked him. "What makes you think it won't stay right where it is?"
"The center of gravity will change," he said, not entirely hiding a note of disdain. "It'll change for both the asteroid and the assembly. So they'll both change their dynamics somewhat."
"Can we predict what'll happen?" she asked.
"Not as precisely as I'd like. Under normal circumstances it'd be simple enough. But with the gas giant in the neighborhood, the calculations get a bit sticky." He looked at her, apparently trying to decide whether she was frightened. "There's really nothing to worry about, if that's what you're thinking." He checked their position on the screens. "Okay," he said into a mike. "Ready to go."
The AI took over. It accelerated, descended closer to the surface, and aimed the lasers that Miles's team had installed. Drummond warned the people among the shafts to get behind the plate and stay there. "Keep your heads down," he told them. "We're starting."
Janet knew that he'd have preferred to have no one out on the assembly while they were releasing the rock. Especially this close. But they had to cut fifteen shafts away from the plate, and there simply wouldn't be time to get the job done unless they'd started on it as soon as they arrived.
The shuttle moved in close. Janet could have put a foot out the airlock and touched the asteroid. In its flat masculine voice, the AI informed them portentously it was about to activate the lasers.
It performed a brief countdown, and twin lances of white light sliced into the dust.
The shuttle moved slowly north to south down the face of the asteroid. It passed just wide of the south pole and started back up.
"We're getting a good cut," said Frank. "We should have separation in a minute or so." Then he added, "Uh-oh."
Janet's heart picked up a beat.
"Everybody, heads up." It was the voice of Frank the pilot. "Rock swarm incoming. About thirty seconds. Get behind the plate on the assembly side."
Tom Scolari looked over the top of the plate to see if they were visible. The action brought a cold remonstrance from Janet, and he got back down. The other members of his team were complying.
"Stay behind the plate," warned Janet. "They're coming in over the asteroid. Keep low, and you'll be fine."
Something blurred past him, a quick silent shadow across the stars. And a second, little more than the whisper of his own heartbeat. It all happened so quickly he couldn't be sure. People were breathing on the circuit. Somebody made a scared noise.
He felt a vibration, and then a jolt. Out along the assembly, something flashed.
"That one hit," Janet said.
Another tremor shook them. Scolari gazed into the eyes of the woman beside him. She looked frightened.
He waited, listening to his pulse until Frank came back up: "That seems to be it, folks. Screen's clear."
"Everybody okay?" asked Drummond.
There were some acknowledgments, and Janet had them respond to their names. While they did, Scolari counted bodies. All present. All moving.
They looked at one another. The woman-her name was Kit- went back to work. But from that moment, whatever nonchalance he might have possessed earlier, Scolari understood that he'd put his life at risk. HΠwas glad not to be alone.
His instructions were simple: slice into as many of the shafts as possible. But no deeper than about halfway until the asteroid was gone. When the shuttle announced that separation was imminent, see that everyone stayed behind the plate. When it was over, when the rock had been disposed of, go back and finish the job, cut everything loose so that the Alpha shaft, the plate, and the net remained one piece but had been separated from the rest of the assembly.