The Genie and the Engineer 3: Ravages of War Read Free

to push
against a thick protective shield of high temperature, high strength metal.
    “It was used in a few sci-fi stories, back when the phrase ‘nuclear
explosions’ wasn’t politically incorrect.” Paul cocked his head to one side.
“The nuclear fuel we still have, apparently. But what did you plan to use as a
pusher plate?”
    “We tried collecting all the pieces of the engines,” Daneel
1 explained. “Using the chutzpah, we were able to retrieve quite a bit of the
pressure chambers and the nozzles. We’ve spent the last half hour trying to
reintegrate the carbon nanotubes on a molecular level but it’s just taking too much
time to do. Maybe in a few days, we’d have something ready.”
    “It’s already too late,” Paul announced with a small shake
of his head. “Two hours of coasting. We can’t compensate for that, not with one
gee of thrust.” He sighed heavily and started to push himself off the bed.
    “Here, here!” Capie admonished him. “Just where do you think
that you are going?”
    “To save our lives,” he replied, shooting her a reassuring
smile. “And I’m feeling a lot better,” he lied. “It hardly hurts at all.”
    “Dad, you should stay in bed,” Daneel 1 recommended. “Just
tell me what we need to do and Daneel 2 and I will do it.”
    “I don’t have a clue,” Paul reluctantly admitted as he
reached out to a handhold on the nearby bulkhead. “Not a single clue.”

TWO
     
    Spacecraft Sirius Effort
    86.3 Million miles from Earth
    Friday 8:37 a.m. EST
    November
     
    P aul arrived at
the Sirius Effort’s cockpit to find Daneel 2 there. Daneel 1 wedged past
Paul and into the small space. To be sure, even with the two Scotties in the
small compartment, Paul could have squeezed in with them too, but it would have
been a tight fit, as well as totally unnecessary. Paul could see the
holographic display screen at the front of the small compartment quite well
from the cockpit’s doorway.
    A part of his mind noted that Daneel 2 must have cast a
spell to enhance the image in the display. At least, Paul assumed that it was
that Scottie’s handiwork, since it was Daneel 2—as the current pilot ‘on
watch’—who was using the far more powerful ‘chutzpah’ talisman. Regardless, the
tail end of the Sirius Effort could be seen quite clearly in the display,
where even the detail in the shadows was sufficiently distinct and discernible.
    The image told Paul that the situation was very serious and
his heart sank as he confirmed his worst fears.
    The port engine was simply gone. Just totally freaking gone .
    The starboard engine was not much better off. It wasn’t gone,
not quite. The forward wall of the pressure chamber was still there along with
the forward windings of the magnetic nozzle coils, the fuel pump and the feed lines.
    But everything aft of that was missing, the few remaining
edges nothing but torn and shredded metal.
    “I can check ship’s stores if you would like, Dad. But I’m
99% certain we don’t have enough rolls of duct tape in the cargo hold to fix
that!” Daneel 2 pointed out with his usual dry sense of humor.
    “Humph,” grunted Paul in misery. “Probably not.” He sighed
while internally trying to get a grip on his emotions and deciding what to do
next. “Daneels, is that the pusher plate you were building?” he asked, pointing
at a dark object floating near the aft end of the ship.
    “Yes, it is,” Daneel 2 replied. “Daneel 1 told you about
that, huh? It’s too hard to do out here in deep space, in a time efficient
manner. We need a space dock, like Hephaestus , to repair our kind of
damage!”
    “ Hephaestus was destroyed in David Weber’s Mission
of Honor ,” Daneel 1 clucked in a disapproving tone. “I vote for Star
Trek ’s Utopia Planitia shipyards. Since they’re supposedly in orbit around
Mars, they’d be a lot closer anyway!”
    “Daneels, please!” Paul replied before pointing at the
screen. “There doesn’t seem to be an