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.Her stomach took a sudden lunge into her throat, and she battled it back down. Display: reverse angle. The words fell from her lips like a faint prayer.Suddenly the angle was reversed, and she sawMidnight Runner standing still inthe blackness, the bright orange carpet fixed to its back.She nudged bothcontrols, and the yacht crept closer.She could feel tears whipping across herface as the boat s frenzied gravities tore them from her eyes, and wasthankful that tears could not blur the virtual display burning in her mind.But gravities would.The orange carpet was not as bright as once it had been.Her vision was going black.She could barely see theRunner s shiny black prowas it slid under her.She braked, hoping she had slowed her boat s movement toa crawl, and as her vision darkened she cried out, Grapples:engage! Both the yacht and the Fleet pinnace were made of layers of resinous polymerstiffened by longitudinal polycarbon beams nothing a magnetic grapple wouldadhere to.But ferrous degaussing strips ran the length of the hull, chargedto repel radiation, and these provided a lodging for the grapples.There was a shuddering boom as the two hulls came together, followed by a tonein Sula s headset that told her the grapples had successfully adhered.Andthen she was working the thruster controls again, fighting the two boats madtumble through emptiness. Display: kill the artificial horizon! Display: show the plane of theecliptic! The words came from her in a choked scream.Two boats were heavierthan the pinnace alone, and sluggish to respond to the controls.She couldbarely see the plane of the ecliptic even as it was projected onto her visualcenters, afile:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruis.Dead%20Empire's%20Fall%2001%20-%20The%20Praxis.html (40 of 310)19-2-2006 4:01:15Page 29 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlWilliams, Walter Jon - [Dead Empire's Fall 01] - The Praxis green gridironthat flashed over and around and across&She battled the swinging weight of the locked boats, and then a new jolt ofterror shrieked through her nerves as she felt somethingelse resistingher Runner s thrusters were firing again.Blitsharts was fighting her.Fury atthis treachery raged in her heart.She battled on, struggling against thechaotic movement, battling to remain conscious as her vision darkened& A wailrose to her throat, a bubbling cry of frustration and anger.The boat juddered and moaned as gravities warred within its frame.Then Sulagave a shout of triumph as she realized her vision was returning.She saw theplane of the ecliptic rolling around her in a simple pattern& she appliedthrust, damping the ship s oscillations, then felt a surge of weary triumph asthe gridiron plane stilled, stretched like a carpet beneath her feet from onehorizon to the other.Blitsharts s boat gave a single blast from its thrusters, and Sula correctedeasily, feeling little but irritation at this last rebellion.She discontinued the virtual display, then had to shake tears and sweat fromher eyes before she could see at her cockpit.Wearily, gasping for breath andfighting the rebellious stomach that still pitched and rolled inside her, shecalled up ship diagnostics.No damage, no hull punctures, antimatter safelycontained.She opened her faceplate and wiped her face.Acid burned in her throat, on hertongue, and she took a long drink of water.Maybe it would settle her stomach.She wiped her face again, reached for the comm board, and began to transmit. Cadet Sula to Operations Control.Rendezvous completed.Both craft nowstabilized.In a moment Iwill grapple toMidnight Runner s hatch and then try to enter. Once the transmission was over, she took her time before moving, waiting forthe vertigo to stop swooping through her head and her stomach to stop tryingto climb out her throat.Then she ungrappled, rolled her boat over onto itsback, and slipped it forward alongMidnight Runner s hull until the two dorsalhatches could mate.She closed her faceplate again and touched the transmit button. Cadet Sulaagain.I have successfully grappled hatch-to-hatch withMidnight Runner.I amgoing on board. She switched on her helmet camera to give everyone at Operations the same viewshe had herself, unstrapped from her acceleration couch and floated out intothe weightless cockpit.Careful not to let her useless legs hit any controls,she rolled over, rolled away the plug of radiation shielding that blocked theexit at the back of the cockpit, then ghosted down the tunnel that connectedthe cockpit to the pinnace s small airlock.Once there, she sealed the tunnelbehind her, triggered her helmet lamp, and ordered thefile:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruis.Dead%20Empire's%20Fall%2001%20-%20The%20Praxis.html (41 of 310)19-2-2006 4:01:15Williams, Walter Jon - [Dead Empire's Fall 01] - The Praxis outside hatch toopen.The hatch obediently rolled back, presenting her with a view of Blitsharts sown glossy black dorsal hatch.She floated to the hatch, looked at thecontrols, and told the hatch to open.It did so in silence.Sula pulled herself head first intoRunner s tinyairlock, braced her feet against the sides and wrenched the lever that shouldopen the airlock to the interior.It refused.The controls made an annoyingmeeping sound
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