Isaac Asimov - Lucky Starr 06 - Lucky Starr and the Rings of Saturn

VIP免费

2024-12-19 0 0 439.19KB 68 页 5.9玖币

侵权投诉

SPACE WAR!

The Sirian's lips stretched into a humorless smile. "In recent weeks Earth has called an interstellar

conference to consider what they chose to call our invasion of their territory. You will testify that Earth

attacked first!"

"I cannot testify to what is not the truth," Lucky Starr answered.

The Sirian's eyes narrowed to slits. "I think you will. You have been studied closely by our agents, and

we know of the Council of Science's sentiment for the weak. Testify or your engineer will die!"

Fawcett Crest Books by Isaac Astaum

DCASEBOOK OF THE BLACK WIDOWERS 24384 $2.25

DTHE CAVES OF STEEL 23782 $2.25

OEARTH IS ROOM ENOUGH 24125 $2.50

DTHE END OF ETERNITY 23704 $2.25

DTHE GODS THEMSELVES 23756 $2.50

DLROBOT 23949 $2.25

DTHE MARTIAN WAY 23783 $2.25

DNINE TOMORROWS 24084 $2.25

DPEBBLE IN THE SKY 23423 $2.25

DTHE STARS, LIKE DUST 23595 $1.95

Bay them at your local bookstore or use this handy coupon (or ordering.

COLUMBIA BOOK SERVICE, CBS Publications

32275 Mally Road, P.O. Box FB, Madison Heights, MI 48071

Please send me the books I have checked above. Orders for less than 5 books must include 75# for the first book and 25* for each

additional book to cover postage and handling. Orders for 5 books or more postage is FREE, Send check or money order only.

Allow 3-4 weeks for delivery.

Cost $ _____ Name _______________________________

Sales tax* Address ______________ _

Postage _____ City ________________________________

Total $ ______ State _______________ Zip ___________

* The government requires us to collect sales tax In all states except AK, DE, MT, NH and OR.

Prices and availability subject to change without notice. 8999

ISAAC ASIMOV

writing as Paul French

LUCKY STARR

and THE RINGS OF SATURN

FAWCETT CREST • NEW YORK

LUCKY STARR AND THE RINGS OF SATURN

THIS BOOK CONTAINS THE COMPLETE TEXT OF THE ORIGINAL HARDCOVER EDITION.

Published by Fawcett Crest Books, a unit of CBS Publications, the Consumer Publishing Division of CBS Inc., by

arrangement with Doubleday and Company, Inc.

RESERVED ISBN: 0-449-23462-2

All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely

coincidental.

Printed in the United States of America 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

CONTENTS

1The Invaders 9

2Pursuit 17

3Death in the Rings 29

4Between Jupiter and Saturn 39

5Skimming Saturn's Surface 49

6Through the Gap 59

7On Mimas 69

8To Titan 79

9The Enemy 91

10 Servicemen and Robots 103

11 Bigman against All 115

12 Surrender 125

13 Prelude to Vesta 135

14 On Vesta 145

15 The Conference 155

16 Biter Bit 165

DEDICATION

To the memory of Henry Kuttner

and Cyril Kombluth Preface

Back in the 1950s, I wrote a series of six derring-do novels about David "Lucky" Starr and his battles

against malefactors within the Solar System. Each of the six took place in a different region of the system,

and in each case I made use of the astronomical facts—as they were then known.

Now, a quarter-century later, Fawcett is bringing out the novels in new editions; but what a

quarter-century it has been! More has been learned about the worlds of our Solar System hi this last

quarter-century than in all the thousands of years that went before.

LUCKY STARR AND THE RINGS OF SATURN was written in 1957, but in 1967, a

French astronomer, Audouin Dollfus, discovered a tenth satellite of Saturn, one that was closer to the

planet than any of the others, 22,000 miles closer to Saturn than Mimas is. This new satellite has been

named Janus.

If I were writing the book today, I would certainly mention that satellite and I might have used it

instead of Mimas.

Moreover, it was not until 1977 that astronomers discovered that Saturn was not the only ringed

planet. Uranus, it turns out, also has rings. They are very thin rings and very faint ones—but they're there.

would surely have mentioned that in this book if I were writing it today.

I hope my Gentle Readers enjoy the book anyway, as an adventure story, but please don't forget that

the advance of science can outdate even the most conscientious science-fiction writer and that my

astronomical descriptions are no longer accurate in all respects.

isaac asimov 1

The Invaders

The Sun was a brilliant diamond in the sky, just large enough to the naked eye to be made out as

something more than a star; as a tiny white-hot pea-sized globe.

Out here in the vastness of space, near the second largest planet of the Solar System, the Sun gave

out only one per cent of the light it cast on man's home planet. It was still, however, the brightest object

in the sky, as four thousand full Moons would be.

Lucky Starr gazed thoughtfully at the visiplate which centered the image of the distant Sun. John

Bigman Jones watched with him, an odd contrast to Lucky's tall and rangy figure. When John Bigman

Jones stretched himself to his full height, he stood five foot two exactly. But the little man did not measure

himself in inches and he allowed people to call him by his middle name only: Bigman.

Bigman said, "You know, Lucky, it's nearly nine hundred million miles away. The Sun, I mean. I've

never been out this far."

The third man in the cabin, Councilman Ben Wes-silewsky, grinned over his shoulder from his place at

the controls. He was another large man, though not as tall as Lucky, and his shock of yellow hair topped

a face that had grown space-brown in the service of the Council of Science.

He said, "What's the matter, Bigman? Scared way out here?"

Bigman squawked, "Sands of Mars, Wess, you get your hands off those controls and say that again."

He had dodged around Lucky and was making for the Councilman, when Lucky's hands came down

on Bigman's shoulders and lifted him bodily. Big-man's legs still pumped, as though carrying him toward

Wess at a charge, but Lucky put his Mars-born friend back in his original position.

"Stay put, Bigman."

"But, Lucky, you heard him. This long cobber

thinks there's more to a man just because there's

more of him. If that Wess is six feet tall, that just

means there's an extra foot of flab ---- "

"All right, Bigman," said Lucky. "And, Wess, let's save the humor for the Sirians."

He spoke quietly to both, but there was no questioning his authority.

Bigman cleared his throat and said, "Where's Mars?"

"On the other side of the Sun from us."

"Wouldn't you know," said the little fellow disgustedly. Then, brightening, "But hold on, Lucky, we're

a hundred million miles below the plane of the Ecliptic. We ought to be able to see Mars below the Sun;

peeking out from behind, sort of."

"Uh-huh, we should. Actually, it's a degree or so away from the Sun, but that's close enough

for it to be drowned out in the glare. You can make out Earth, though, I think."

Bigman allowed a look of haughty disgust to cross his face. "Who in space wants to see Earth? There

isn't anything there but people; mostly groundhogs who've never even been a hundred miles off the

surface. I wouldn't look at it if that were all there was in the sky to look at. You let Wess look at it

That's his speed."

He walked moodily away from the visiplate.

Wess said, "Hey, Lucky, how about getting Saturn on and taking a good look at it from this angle?

Come on, I've been promising myself a treat."

"I don't know," said Lucky, "that the sight of Saturn these days is exactly what you might call a treat."

He said it lightly, but for a moment silence fell uneasily within the confined pilot room of The Shooting

Starr.

All three felt the change in atmosphere. Saturn meant danger. Saturn had taken on a new face of

doom to the peoples of the Terrestrial Federation. To six billion people on Earth, to additional millions

on Mars, the Moon, and Venus, to scientific stations on Mercury, Ceres, and the outer moons of Jupiter,

Saturn had become something newly and unexpectedly deadly.

Lucky was the first to shrug off that moment of depression, and, obedient to the touch of his fingers,

the sensitive electronic scanners set into the hull of The Shooting Starr rotated smoothly on their

universal gimbals. As that happened, the field of vision in the visiplate shifted.

The stars marched across the visiplate in steady

procession, and Bigman said with a curl of hatred in his upper lip, "Any of those things Sirius, Lucky?"

"No," said Lucky, "we're working through the Southern Celestial Hemisphere and Sirius is in the

Northern. Would you like to see Canopus?"

"No," said Bigman. "Why should I?"

"I just thought you might be interested. It's the second brightest star and you could pretend it was

Sirius." Lucky smiled slightly. It always amused him that the patriotic Bigman should be so annoyed

because Sirius, home star of the great enemies of the Solar System (though themselves descendants of

Earth-men), was the brightest star in Earth's heavens.

Bigman said, "Very funny. Come on, Lucky, let's see Saturn, and then when we get back to Earth

you can get on some comedy show and panic everybody."

The stars kept their smooth motion, then slowed and stopped. Lucky said, "There it is—unmagnified,

too."

Wess locked the controls and twirled in the pilot's seat so that he might see also.

It was a half-moon in appearance, somewhat bulging into more than half, just large enough to be seen

as such, bright with a soft yellow light that was dimmer in the center than along the edges.

"How far away are we?" Bigman asked in astonishment.

Lucky said, "About a hundred million miles, I think."

"Something's wrong," Bigman said. "Where are the rings? I've been counting on a good look."

The Shooting Starr was high above the south pole of

Saturn. From that position it should see the rings broad on.

Lucky said, "The rings are blurred into the globe of the planet, Bigman, because of the distance.

Suppose we magnify the image and take a closer look."

The spot of light that was Saturn expanded and stretched in every direction, growing. And the

half-moon that it had seemed to be broke up into three segments.

There was still a central globe, half-mooned. Around it, however, touching the globe at no point, was

a circularly curved ribbon of light, divided into two unequal halves by a dark line. As the ribbon curved

about Saturn and entered its shadow, it was cut off in darkness.

"Yes, sir, Bigman," said Wess, lecturing, "Saturn itself is only seventy-eight thousand miles in diameter.

At a hundred million miles, it would just be a dot of light, but count in the rings and there are nearly two

hundred thousand miles of reflecting surface from one end to the other."

"I know all that," said Bigman indignantly.

"And what's more," continued Wess, unheeding, "at a hundred million miles, the seven-thousand-mile

break between Saturn's surface and the innermost portion of the rings just couldn't be seen; let alone the

twenty-five-hundred-mile break that divides the rings in two. That black line is called Cassini's division,

you know, Bigman."

"I said I know," roared Bigman. "Listen, Lucky, that cobber is trying to make out I didn't go to

school. Maybe I didn't get much schooling, but there

isn't anything he has to tell me about space. Say the word, Lucky; say you'll let him stop hiding behind

you and I'll squash him like a bug."

Lucky said, "You can make out Titan."

At once Bigman and Wess said in chorus, "Where?"

"Right there." Titan showed as a tiny half-moon about the size, under current magnification, that

Saturn and its ring system had appeared to be without magnification. It was near the edge of the

visiplate.

Titan was the only sizable moon in the Sarurnian system. But it wasn't its size that made Wess stare at

it with curiosity and Bigman with hate.

It was, instead, that the three were almost certain that Titan was the only world in the Solar System

populated by men who did not acknowledge the over-lordship of Earth. Suddenly and unexpectedly it

had been revealed as a world of the enemy.

It brought the danger suddenly closer. "When do we get inside the Saturnian system, Lucky?"

Lucky said, "There's no real definition as to what is the Saturnian system, Bigman. Most people

consider a world's system to include all the space out to the distance where the farthermost body is

moving under the gravitational influence of that world. If that's so, we're still outside the Saturnian

system."

"The Sirians say, though ---- " began Wess.

"To Sun-center with the Sirian cobbers!" roared Bigman, slapping his high boots in anger. "Who cares

what they say?" He slapped his boots again as though every Sirian in the system were under the force of

his blows. His boots were the most truly Martian thing about him. Their raucous coloring, orange and

black in a curving checkerboard design, was the loud proclamation that their owner had been born and

bred among the Martian farms and domed cities.

Lucky blanked out the visiplate. The detectors on the ship's hulls retracted, leaving the ship's outer

skin smooth, gleaming, and unbroken except for the bulge that ringed the stern and held The Shooting

Starr's Agrav* attachment.

Lucky said, "We can't allow ourselves the luxury of the who-cares-what-they-say attitude, Bigman.

At the moment the Sirians have the upper hand. Maybe we'll get them out of the Solar System

eventually, but right now the only thing we can do is to play it their way for the while."

Bigman muttered rebelliously, "We're in our own system."

"Sure, but Sirius is occupying this part of it and, pending an interstellar conference, there isn't any

thing Earth can do about it, unless it's willing to start a war."

There was nothing to be said to that. Wess returned to his controls, and The Shooting Starr,

with minimum expenditure of thrust, making use of Saturn's gravity to the maximum, continued to

sink rapidly toward the polar regions of the planet.

Down, down, deeper into the grip of what was now a Sirian world, its space swarming with Sirian

ships some fifty trillion miles from then* home planet and only seven hundred million miles from Earth. In

one giant step Sirius had covered 99.999 per cent of the distance between itself and Earth and

established a military base on Earth's very doorstep.

* Lucky Starr and the Moons of Jupiter,

If Sirius were allowed to remain there, then in one sudden moment Earth would sink to the status of

second-class power at Sirius's mercy. And the interstellar political situation was such that for the moment

all of Earth's giant military establishment, all of her mighty ships and weapons were helpless to deal with

the situation.

Only three men in one small ship, on their own initiative and unauthorized by Earth, were left to try, by

skill and craft, to reverse the situation, knowing that if they were caught they could be executed out of

hand as spies—in their own Solar System by invaders of that Solar System—and that Earth could not do

a solitary thing to save them. 2

Pursuit

As little as a month ago there had been no thought of the danger, no barest notion, until it exploded in the

face of Earth's government. Steadily and methodically the Council of Science had been cleaning up the

nest of robot spies that had riddled Earth and its possessions and whose power had been broken by

Lucky Starr on the snows of Io.*

It had been a grim job and, in a way, a frightening one, for the espionage had been thorough and

efficient and, moreover, had come within an ace of succeeding and damaging Earth desperately.

Then, at the moment when the situation seemed completely in the clear at last, a crack appeared in the

healing structure, and Hector Conway, Chief Councilman, awakened Lucky in the small hours one night.

He showed signs of hurried dressing, and his fine white hair was in rumpled disarray.

Lucky, blinking sleep out of his eyes, offered coffee and said in amazement, "Great Galaxy, Uncle

Hector" (Lucky had called him that since his early orphaned days, when Conway and Augustus Henree

* Lucky Starr and the Moons of Jupiter.

had been his guardians), "are the visiphone circuits out?"

"I dared not trust the visiphone, my boy. We're in a dreadful mess."

"In what way?" Lucky asked the question quietly, but he removed the upper half of his pajamas and

began washing.

Bigman came in, stretching and yawning. "Hey, what's all this Mars-forsaken noise about?"

Recognizing the Chief Councilman, he snapped into wakeful-ness. "Trouble, sir?"

"We've let Agent X slip through our fingers."

"Agent X? The mysterious Sirian?" Lucky's eyes narrowed a bit. "The last I heard of him, the Council

had decided he didn't exist."

"That was before the robot spy business turned up.

He's been clever, Lucky, darned clever. It takes a

clever spy to convince the Council he doesn't exist.

I should have put you on his track, but there always

seemed something else you had to do. Anyway-----"

"Yes?"

"You know how all this robot spy business showed there must be a central clearing agency for the

information being gathered and that it pointed to a position on Earth itself as the location of the agency.

That got us on the trail of Agent X all over again, and one of the strong possibilities for that role was a

man named Jack Dorrance at Acme Air Products right here in International City."

"I hadn't known this."

"There were many other candidates for the job. But then Dorrance took a private ship off Earth and

blasted right through an emergency block. It was a stroke

19.

of luck we had a Councilman at Port Center who took the right action at once and followed. Once the

report of the ship's block-blasting reached us, it took only minutes to find that of all the suspects only

Dorrance was out of surveillance check. He'd gotten past us. A few other matters fit in then

and—anyway, he's Agent X. We're sure of it now."

"Very well, then, Uncle Hector. Where's the harm? He's gone."

"We know one more thing now. He's taken a personal capsule with him, and we have no doubt that

that capsule contains information he has managed to collect from the spy network over the Federation,

and, presumably, has not yet had time to deliver to his Sirian bosses. Space knows exactly what he has,

but there must be enough there to blow our security to pieces if it gets into Sirian hands."

"You say he was followed. He has been brought back?"

"No." The harassed Chief Councilman turned pettish. "Would I be here if he had been?"

Lucky asked suddenly, "Is the ship he took equipped to make the Jump?"

"No," cried the ruddy-faced Chief Councilman, and he smoothed his silvered thatch of hair as though it

had risen in horror at the very thought of the Jump.

Lucky drew a deep breath of relief too. The Jump was, of course, the leap through hyperspace, a

movement that carried a ship outside ordinary space and brought it back again into a point in space many

light-years away, all in an instant.

In such a ship Agent X would, very likely, get away.

Conway said, "He worked solo; his getaway was

solo. That was part of the reason he slipped through our fingers. And the ship he took was an

interplanetary cruiser designed for one-man operation."

"And ships equipped with hyperspatials don't come designed for one-man operation. Not yet,

anyway. But, Uncle Hector, if he's taken an interplanetary cruiser, then I suppose that's all he needs."

Lucky had finished washing and was dressing himself rapidly. He turned to Bigman suddenly. "And

how about you? Snap into your clothes, Bigman."

Bigman, who was sitting on the edge of the couch, virtually turned a somersault getting off it.

Lucky said, "Probably, waiting for him somewhere in space, is a Sirian-manned ship that is equipped

with hyperspatials."

"Right. And he's got a fast ship, and with his start

and speed, we may not catch him or even get within

weapons range. And that leaves ---- "

"The Shooting Starr. I'm ahead of you, Uncle Hector. I'll be on the Shooter in an hour, and Bigman

with me, assuming he can drag his clothes on. Just get me the present location and course of the pursuing

ships and the identifying data on Agent X's ship and we'll be on our way."

"Good." Conway's harried face smoothed out a bit. "And, David"—he used Lucky's real name, as he

always did in moments of emotion—"you will be careful?"

"Did you ask that of the personnel on the other ten ships too, Uncle Hector?" Lucky asked, but his

voice was soft and affectionate.

Bigman had one hip boot pulled up now and the other in his hand. He patted the small holster on the

velvety inner surface of the free boot. "Are we on our way, Lucky?" The light of action glowed in his

eyes, and his puckish little face was wrinkled in a fierce grin.

"We're on our way," said Lucky, reaching out to tousle Bigman's sandy hair. "We've been rusting on

Earth for how long? Six weeks? Well, that's long enough."

"And how," agreed Bigman joyfully, and pulled on the other boot

They were out past the orbit of Mars before they made satisfactory sub-etheric contact with the

pursuing ships, using the tightest scrambling.

It was Councilman Ben Wessilewsky on the T.S.S. Harpoon who answered.

He shouted, "Lucky! Are you joining us? Swell!" His face grinned out of the visiplate and he winked.

"Got room to squash Bigman's ugly puss into a corner of your screen? Or isn't he with you?"

"I'm with him," howled Bigman as he plunged between Lucky and the transmitter. "Think Councilman

Conway would let this big lunk go anywhere without me to keep an eye on him so's he doesn't trip over

his big feet?"

Lucky picked Bigman up and tucked him, squawking, under one arm. He said, "Seems to be a noisy

connection, Wess. What's the position of the ship we're after?"

Wess, sobering, gave it. He said, "The ship's The Net of Space. It's privately owned, with a legitimate

record of manufacture and sale. Agent X must have bought it under a dummy name and prepared for

emergency a long time ago. It's a sweet ship and it's

been accelerating ever since it took off. We're falling behind."

"What's its power capacity?"

"We've thought of that. We've checked the manufacturer's record of the craft, and at the rate he's

expending power, he can't go much farther without either cutting motors or sacrificing maneuverability

once he reaches destination. Wre counting on driving him into that exact hole."

"Presumably, though, he may have had the sense to rev up the ship's power capacity."

"Probably," said Wess, "but even so he can't keep this up forever. The thing I worry about is the

possibility that he might evade our mass detectors by asteroid-skipping. If he can get the breaks in the

asteroid belt, we may lose him."

Lucky knew that trick. Place an asteroid between yourself and a pursuer, and the pursuer's mass

detectors locate the asteroid rather than the ship. When a second asteroid comes within reach, the ship

shifts from one to the other, leaving the pursuer with his instrument still fastened on the first rock.

Lucky said, "He's moving too fast to make the maneuver. He'd have to decelerate for half a day."

"It would take a miracle," agreed Wess frankly, "but it took a miracle to put us on his trail, and so I

almost expect another miracle to cancel the first."

"What was the first miracle? The Chief said something about an emergency block."

"That's right." Wess told the story crisply, and it didn't take long. Dorrance, or Agent X (Wess called

him by either name), had slipped surveillance by using an instrument that distorted the spy-beam into

useless- 23

ness. (The instrument had been located, but its workings were fused and it could not even be determined

if it was of Sirian manufacture.) He reached his getaway ship, The Net of Space, without trouble. He

was ready to take off with this proton micro-reactor activated, his motor and controls checked, clear

space above—and then a limping freight ship, meteor-struck and unable to radio ahead, had appeared in

the stratosphere, signaling desperately for a clear field.

The emergency block was flashed. All ships in port were held fast. Any ship in the process of

take-off, unless it was already in actual motion, had to abandon take-off procedure.

The Net of Space ought to have abandoned take-off, but it did not. Lucky Starr could well

understand what the feelings of Agent X aboard must have been. The hottest item in the Solar System

was in his possession, and every second counted. Now that he had made his actual move he could not

rely on too long a time before the Council would be on his heels. If he abandoned take-off it would mean

an untold delay while a riddled ship limped down and ambulances slowly emptied it. Then, when the field

was cleared again, it would mean reactivation of the micro-reactor and another controls check. He could

not afford the delay.

So his jet blasted and up he went.

And still Agent X might have escaped. The alarm sounded, the port police put out wild messages to

The Net of Space, but it was Councilman Wessilewsky, serving a routine hitch at Port Center, who took

proper action. He had played his part in the search for Agent X, and a ship that blasted off against an

emergency block somehow smelled wildly of just enough

desperation to mean Agent X. It was the wildest possible guess, but he acted.

With the authority of the Council of Science behind him (which superseded all other authority except

that contained in a direct order from the President of the Terrestrial Federation, he ordered ships into

space, contacted Council Headquarters, and then boarded the T.S.S. Harpoon to guide the pursuit. He

had already been in space for hours before the Council as a whole caught up with events. But then the

message came through that he was indeed pursuing Agent X and that other ships would be joining him.

Lucky listened gravely and said, "It was a chance that paid off, Wess. And the right thing to do. Good

work."

Wess grinned. Councilmen traditionally avoided publicity and the trappings of fame, but the approval

of one's fellows in the Council was something greatly to be desired.

Lucky said, "I'm moving on. Have one of your ships maintain mass contact with me."

He broke visual contact, and his strong, finely formed hands closed almost caressingly on his ship's

controls—his Shooting Starr, which in so many ways was the sweetest vessel in space.

The Shooting Starr had the most powerful proton micro-reactors that could be inserted into a ship

of its size; reactors almost powerful enough to accelerate a battle cruiser at fleet-regulation pace;

reactors almost powerful enough to manage the Jump through hyper-space. The ship had an ion drive

that cut out most of the apparent effects of acceleration by acting simul-

taneously on all atoms aboard ship, including those that made up the living bodies of Lucky and Bigman.

It even had an Agrav, recently developed and still experimental, which enabled it to maneuver freely in

the intense gravitational fields of the major planets.

And now The Shooting Starr's mighty motors hummed smoothly into a higher pitch, just heard, and

Lucky felt the slight pressure of such backward drag as was not completely compensated for by the ion

drive. The ship bounded outward into the far reaches of the Solar System, faster, faster, still faster....

And still Agent X maintained his lead, and The Shooting Starr gained too slowly. With the main body

of the asteroid belt far behind, Lucky said, "It looks bad, Bigman."

Bigman looked surprised. "Well get him, Lucky."

"It's where he's heading. I was sure it would be a Sirian mother-ship waiting to pick him up and make

the Jump homeward. But such a ship would be either way out of the plane of the Ecliptic or it would be

hidden in the asteroid belt. Either way, it could count on not being detected. But Agent X stays in the

Ecliptic and heads beyond the asteroids."

"Maybe he's just trying to shake us before he heads for the ship."

"Maybe," said Lucky, "and maybe the Sirians have a base on the outer planets."

"Come on, Lucky." The small Martian cackled his derision. "Right under our noses?"

"It's hard to see under our noses sometimes. His course is aimed right at Saturn."

Bigman checked the ship's computers, which were

keeping constant tab on the other's course. He said, "Look, Lucky, the cobber is still on a ballistic

course. He hasn't touched his motors in twenty million miles. Maybe he's out of power."

"And maybe he's saving his power for maneuvers in the Saturnian system. There'll be a heavy

gravitational drag there. At least I hope he's saving power. Great Galaxy, I hope he is." Lucky's lean,

handsome face was grave now and his lips were pressed together tightly.

Bigman looked at him with astonishment. "Sands of Mars, Lucky, why?"

"Because if there is a Sirian base in Saturn's system, we'll need Agent X to lead us to that base.

Saturn has one tremendous satellite, eight sizeable ones, and dozens of splinter worlds. It would help to

know exactly where it was."

Bigman frowned. "The cobber wouldn't be dumb enough to lead us there."

"Or maybe to let us catch him. . . . Bigman, calculate his course forward to the point of intersection

with Saturn's orbit."

Bigman did so. It was a routine moment of work for the computer.

Lucky said, "And how about Saturn's position at the moment of intersection? How far will Saturn be

from Agent X's ship?"

There was the short pause necessary for getting the elements of Saturn's orbit from the Ephemeris,

and then Bigman punched it in. A few seconds of calculation and Bigman suddenly rose to his feet in

alarm. "Lucky! Sands of Mars!"

Lucky did not need to ask the details. He said, ''I'm

thinking that Agent X may have decided on the one way to keep from leading us to the Sirian base. If he

continues on ballistic course exactly as he is now, he will strike Saturn itself—and sure death."

Death in the Rings

There came to be no possible doubt about it as the hours passed. Even the pursuing guard ships, far

behind The Shooting Starr, too far off to get completely accurate fixes on their mass detectors, were

perturbed.

Councilman Wessilewsky contacted Lucky Starr. "Space, Lucky," he said, "where's he going?"

"Saturn itself, it seems," said Lucky.

"Do you suppose a ship might be waiting for him on Saturn? I know it has thousands of miles of

atmosphere with million-ton pressures, and without Agrav

文档加载中……请稍候！
如果长时间未打开，您也可以点击刷新试试。

下载文档到电脑，查找使用更方便

5.9 玖币 0人已下载

立即下载 VIP免费下载

摘要：

SPACEWAR!TheSirian'slipsstretchedintoahumorlesssmile."InrecentweeksEarthhascalledaninterstellarconferencetoconsiderwhattheychosetocallourinvasionoftheirterritory.YouwilltestifythatEarthattackedfirst!""Icannottestifytowhatisnotthetruth,"LuckyStarranswered.TheSirian'seyesnarrowedtoslits."Ithinkyouwill...

展开>> 收起<<

Isaac Asimov - Lucky Starr 06 - Lucky Starr and the Rings of Saturn.pdf

共68页,预览14页

还剩页未读，继续阅读

声明：本站为文档C2C交易模式，即用户上传的文档直接被用户下载，本站只是中间服务平台，本站所有文档下载所得的收益归上传人(含作者)所有。玖贝云文库仅提供信息存储空间，仅对用户上传内容的表现方式做保护处理，对上载内容本身不做任何修改或编辑。若文档所含内容侵犯了您的版权或隐私，请立即通知玖贝云文库，我们立即给予删除！

Isaac Asimov - Lucky Starr 06 - Lucky Starr and the Rings of Saturn

相关推荐

开通VIP享超值会员特权

作者详情

相关内容

热门标签

举报选择: