Temporary Duty Read Free Page B

that was a red flashing light. Now they could see it was a hole. The light was different inside, bluer than the sunlight and not nearly as bright, and machines of some sort were just becoming visible. The upper left-hand light wavered oddly and broke up into lines at an angle to the edge of the hole; Gell spat a syllable and pushed the control gently to the right, then a bit down, and the light went solid but continued flashing. Their version of a meatball, apparently, and pretty slick. Keep the lights round seemed to be the game.
    That was a big hole. One of the things inside was another
dli
, looking like a toy; Todd tried to recall the height of the vertical stabilizer, made a quick calculation, then a low whistling hiss. "Peters, that hole is over twenty meters high."
    "Yeah, I was just gettin’ the same thing. That makes it fifty wide, which makes the ship eighty meters high and better’n two hundred wide. God knows how long it is."
    "Approximately seven hundred meters," said Dreelig. "Of course we don’t use your measures. You will have to learn our measures, and our numbers, if you are to be of help."
    The stern of the ship was a wall filling the windshield, and the hole was a gaping maw, bluish light inside, corner lamps strobing. The closer they got, the faster their approach speed seemed. They knew it was an optical illusion, but both sailors were gripping their seat arms and leaning back defensively. Then the light changed as they crossed the threshold, there was a heartbeat of impossibly quick deceleration that didn’t change the rock-stable feeling at all, and they were moving sedately across the floor of a huge space. Gell pushed a series of buttons, causing the crosses on the instrument dials to disappear, and the
dli
came to a halt next to another, identical one.
    Dreelig stood and stretched, much as a human being would. "Please get your things and come with me," he said. He led the way toward the back of the shuttle, continuing, "The delay on the ground has cost us some time. I must introduce you to my, ah, colleague, because I have other duties for the remainder of this
llor
." The two sailors exchanged glances and shrugs, got their seabags and peacoats out of the luggage locker, and followed.
     

Chapter Two
    The welcoming committee was a single Grallt, female if the well-filled tunic meant the same thing as it did with humans. She and Dreelig conversed in low voices while Todd and Peters waited on the wingwalk, looking around.
    Overhead, heavy beams pierced with lightening holes ran crosswise every three meters or so, with lighter stringers lengthwise at about the same spacing. A rat’s-nest of wires, tubes, conduits, and who-knew-what twisted and tangled around the beams, entering and leaving boxes and tanks. Six rows of big lights marched from one end to the other, giving about the level of illumination to be expected on the carrier’s hangar deck at night, but bluish instead of the yellow they were used to.
    "Correct me if I’m wrong," Todd said, "but isn’t outer space supposed to be a vacuum?"
    "That’s what they told me," Peters replied slowly, shifting his seabag for a more comfortable grip.
    "And we just landed this thing, right?"
    "That’s what I remember, yeah."
    "Then what the fuck are we breathing?" Todd demanded. "Did you hear any air coming in, or anything like that?"
    "Shit, I dunno. I ain’t never been on a spaceship before."
    The thwartships beams continued down the walls to form alcoves two meters deep. One wall, to port as they had entered, had three big doors or hatches reinforced with a waffle pattern of smaller beams, not quite as high as the bay but almost as wide. Everything was painted one color, probably cream or light yellow; it was hard to tell, because it was all grimy and scarred, let alone the effect of the bluish light. The deck was scuffed, worn, and littered with trash, most of it the size of bolts and screws but a few pieces as big as a man’s head; bits of