[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
damn close, too."
He performed a swift loop and sent the little space plane arrowing forward
again, lancing beneath the
TAV. It veered around in a fast curve, another missile flaring from its port
wing. It streaked beneath the flit-ter-gig and impacted against a pillar of
stone with a yellow-orange fireball.
Grant pulled back on the joystick controls again, went up over the TAV, veered
off in the opposite direction, then dived again. He opened full throttle and
went skittering beneath the larger aircraft in a whipping spiral. They were
slapped back against their seats, but the g-force assault lasted only a
second.
The pilot of the TAV seemed momentarily bewildered by the unexpected maneuver.
The flitter^gig banked, and through the canopy it appeared the horizon was
wheeling crazily around them. Under Grant's guidance, the aircraft performed
barrel rolls, loop-de-loops and wide, swinging yaws. Kane wondered if he
wasn't showing off for the pilot of the pursuit craft, since he obviously had
little ex-perience beyond rudimentary up and down, forward and backward.
Page 117
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0Kings,%20Book%201.html (147 of 174)17-2-2006 3:18:23
James Axler - Outlanders - Devil in the Moon
Grant put the flitter-gig into a sharp dive, pulled up equally sharply,
reversing an old Deathbird maneuver he called the peel up, pop down. He threw
the plane from side to side, trying to confuse the
TAV's missile targeter. Another projectile smoked from the craft's launcher,
streaking well below them and disappearing into a crater.
Twisting in his seat, Kane watched the TAV tilting to starboard, curving back
toward them in a wide, flat turn. Suddenly, Grant snarled, "Son of a bitch!"
"What?" Kane and Brigid demanded almost in unison.
Deceleration jumped on their chests, slamming the air from their lungs in
uncontrollable exhalations.
Then just as suddenly, the pressure was gone. Kane could feel the vibrations
of the overstressed stabilizers rattling through the deck at his feet. A
queasy, liquid sensation began in his stomach, and the shuddering that racked
the flitter-gig from stem to stern didn't help it any.
"Losing power," snapped Grant, working at the joystick frantically. "She's not
responding."
The turbojets chose that moment to stop working, the blue flames disappearing
from the vents with the suddenness of candles being snuffed out. For a long
time it couldn't really have been more than a hand-
ful of seconds the flitter-gig seemed to hang sus-pended between the airless
sky and the lunar terrain.
Then it plunged.
As the flitter-gig dropped, it turned and struck at an angle. It seemed to
crash with the force of a bat-
tering ram. Kane's body strained against the recoil harness and then slammed
back violently. All the air exploded from his lungs as he was engulfed in a
thun-dering wave of shock, followed by pain. For an in-
stant, all he heard were his own strangulated gasps as he fought for air and
struggled against the cloak of darkness settling over his mind.
He fought back to consciousness with the sound of the wind keening in his
ears. A moment later he re-
alized it was the hissing of oxygen filtering into his helmet. With throbbing
muscles and dazed senses, he fumbled with the release catch of his safety
harness. He managed to free himself and heard, with relief, Grant mumbling a
curse and Brigid biting back a groan. He looked up just as the silent shape of
the TAV zipped over the little craft it had just crashed.
They had landed among a forest of monolithic rock formations at the base of a
ridge. The outcroppings thrust up all around from the soil like skeletal
fingers. The fritter-gig had skated between two of them but crashed into a
third, the impact causing it to topple over, so there was little room for the
TAV to make a vertical descent in the immediate area.
"Is everybody all right?" Brigid asked in a breath-less voice, tight with the
effort to control pain.
file:///J|/sci-fi/Nieuwe%20map/James%20Axler%20-%...0Moon%20-%20The%20Dragon%2
0Kings,%20Book%201.html (148 of 174)17-2-2006 3:18:23
James Axler - Outlanders - Devil in the Moon
Kane's right hip was throbbing, but as far as he could tell no bones had been
broken. "I think so. You?"
"A little bruised and battered, but nothing broken. Grant?"
Grant pushed himself away from the shambles of the control console and slid
open the canopy. ' 'I can move, if that's any consolation. Sorry about the
land-ing. This damn thing was too fragile to take the kind of jockeying I'm
used to."
Page 118 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl chiara76.opx.pl
damn close, too."
He performed a swift loop and sent the little space plane arrowing forward
again, lancing beneath the
TAV. It veered around in a fast curve, another missile flaring from its port
wing. It streaked beneath the flit-ter-gig and impacted against a pillar of
stone with a yellow-orange fireball.
Grant pulled back on the joystick controls again, went up over the TAV, veered
off in the opposite direction, then dived again. He opened full throttle and
went skittering beneath the larger aircraft in a whipping spiral. They were
slapped back against their seats, but the g-force assault lasted only a
second.
The pilot of the TAV seemed momentarily bewildered by the unexpected maneuver.
The flitter^gig banked, and through the canopy it appeared the horizon was
wheeling crazily around them. Under Grant's guidance, the aircraft performed
barrel rolls, loop-de-loops and wide, swinging yaws. Kane wondered if he
wasn't showing off for the pilot of the pursuit craft, since he obviously had
little ex-perience beyond rudimentary up and down, forward and backward.
Page 117
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
file:///J|/sci-fi/Nieuwe%20map/James%20Axler%20-%...0Moon%20-%20The%20Dragon%2
0Kings,%20Book%201.html (147 of 174)17-2-2006 3:18:23
James Axler - Outlanders - Devil in the Moon
Grant put the flitter-gig into a sharp dive, pulled up equally sharply,
reversing an old Deathbird maneuver he called the peel up, pop down. He threw
the plane from side to side, trying to confuse the
TAV's missile targeter. Another projectile smoked from the craft's launcher,
streaking well below them and disappearing into a crater.
Twisting in his seat, Kane watched the TAV tilting to starboard, curving back
toward them in a wide, flat turn. Suddenly, Grant snarled, "Son of a bitch!"
"What?" Kane and Brigid demanded almost in unison.
Deceleration jumped on their chests, slamming the air from their lungs in
uncontrollable exhalations.
Then just as suddenly, the pressure was gone. Kane could feel the vibrations
of the overstressed stabilizers rattling through the deck at his feet. A
queasy, liquid sensation began in his stomach, and the shuddering that racked
the flitter-gig from stem to stern didn't help it any.
"Losing power," snapped Grant, working at the joystick frantically. "She's not
responding."
The turbojets chose that moment to stop working, the blue flames disappearing
from the vents with the suddenness of candles being snuffed out. For a long
time it couldn't really have been more than a hand-
ful of seconds the flitter-gig seemed to hang sus-pended between the airless
sky and the lunar terrain.
Then it plunged.
As the flitter-gig dropped, it turned and struck at an angle. It seemed to
crash with the force of a bat-
tering ram. Kane's body strained against the recoil harness and then slammed
back violently. All the air exploded from his lungs as he was engulfed in a
thun-dering wave of shock, followed by pain. For an in-
stant, all he heard were his own strangulated gasps as he fought for air and
struggled against the cloak of darkness settling over his mind.
He fought back to consciousness with the sound of the wind keening in his
ears. A moment later he re-
alized it was the hissing of oxygen filtering into his helmet. With throbbing
muscles and dazed senses, he fumbled with the release catch of his safety
harness. He managed to free himself and heard, with relief, Grant mumbling a
curse and Brigid biting back a groan. He looked up just as the silent shape of
the TAV zipped over the little craft it had just crashed.
They had landed among a forest of monolithic rock formations at the base of a
ridge. The outcroppings thrust up all around from the soil like skeletal
fingers. The fritter-gig had skated between two of them but crashed into a
third, the impact causing it to topple over, so there was little room for the
TAV to make a vertical descent in the immediate area.
"Is everybody all right?" Brigid asked in a breath-less voice, tight with the
effort to control pain.
file:///J|/sci-fi/Nieuwe%20map/James%20Axler%20-%...0Moon%20-%20The%20Dragon%2
0Kings,%20Book%201.html (148 of 174)17-2-2006 3:18:23
James Axler - Outlanders - Devil in the Moon
Kane's right hip was throbbing, but as far as he could tell no bones had been
broken. "I think so. You?"
"A little bruised and battered, but nothing broken. Grant?"
Grant pushed himself away from the shambles of the control console and slid
open the canopy. ' 'I can move, if that's any consolation. Sorry about the
land-ing. This damn thing was too fragile to take the kind of jockeying I'm
used to."
Page 118 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]