Alan Dean Foster Commonwealth 05 Sentenced to Prism

Odnośniki

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

"What the hell is it?"
"Cyanoacrylate structure. Quite unique, sir."
"Everything here's quite unique. It doesn't look like much. Come on,
let's get moving." He pressed his right thigh against the appropriate sensors.
Servos whined in protest but the leg wouldn't budge. The gel continued its
rapid climb up his lower limbs.
"All right, I'm convinced. It's unique. Now break free."
"I cannot, sir."
"What do you mean, you `cannot'? It's just a different kind of glue, like
the stuff that other thing was secreting."
"Your pardon, sir, but it is not merely a different kind of glue. It is
not being secreted by a single small animal but is oozing directly out of the
ground. It is a far denser compound with a considerably more versatile
molecular structure."
Evan refused to panic. "Then bum it off, like you did the other."
"Yes sir." Once more the laser was brought into play. Evan found he was
beginning to sweat as the minutes passed without any reduction in the volume
of gel.
"It's not working."
"I could have told you that, sir. The gel is capable of dispersing the
heat of the beam throughout its substance. It cannot penetrate my exterior, of
course."
"At the moment that's not very reassuring. You have to break free."
"I am considering the problem, sir."
Evan fell quiet to let the suit's computer devote all its efforts to
finding a solution to the current predicament. He tried his legs again, was
unable to move them at all. The gel was working its way rapidly up his thighs.
It was thick and syrupy.
He wondered where it was coming from.
What would happen when it reached his neck and began to cover his helmet?
What would happen when he was completely encased? They'd already encountered
one species which utilized nitric acid as gastric juice. What else besides
adhesive gel could the abomination buried beneath him produce? The process
reminded him of the way in which a spider immobilizes its prey in a silken
cocoon before it begins to dine. Something huge had to be down below,
Page 40
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
concealed by the sandy soil. It was wrapping him up, slowly and methodically.
To produce so much gel so quickly it had to be of considerable size. Would it
come up beneath him or would it pull him down under the surface? Down into the
darkness, where he wouldn't be able to see, where he'd only be able to feel it
probing and picking at the suit, hunting for a way in.
But it couldn't break into the MHW. He was sure of that, though not quite
as positive as he'd been a day earlier. And if it couldn't, what then? If it
let him go, all well and good. If not-if not, it might choose to keep him for
a while. A day, perhaps, down beneath the surface. Or a couple of days. Or
more. Until his air began to run out because it couldn't recycle.
He would be buried alive, entombed within the suit. The impregnable MHW
would become an impregnable coffin.
He had to get out of that inexorable, crawling grip. Reaching down, he
used both massive metal hands to dig into the material. There was resistance
from the gummy substance and when he tried to pull it away from his hips he
found he could not. Worse, his hands were now glued to his sides. The gel
continued its uninterrupted progress up his body, flowing outward now to
encase his hands and lower arms as well.
"You know," the suit informed him thoughtfully, "if I were able to
synthesize a powerful acid like certain local lifeforms it might be that it
would damage this gel. Unfortunately, I was designed to synthesize only
foodstuffs."
Evan ignored the MHW's lament. He wasn't interested in what it couldn't
do.
Think, he shouted at himself. He'd been put down here to find answers and
provide solutions to problems. He needed one now. The suit could only do his
bidding. Beyond a certain point it could not initiate action, could only
respond to his requests. He fought to remember everything he'd learned about
Prism since the cursed moment when he'd touched down on its surface.
At the same time he couldn't help but stare in fascination as the
malevolent goo came crawling up his arm, surmounting the elbow and hurrying
toward his shoulder. When it reached that point it would start for his neck.
Something moved, ever so slightly, under the ground.
Acid might be effective, but the suit couldn't synthesize acid. What else
could it do? What else might prove effective against an inanimate assault?
What else did the inhabitants of Prism utilize to . . . ?
"You can generate frequencies on every wavelength, can't you?"
"Yes sir. As part of my internal communications system I am able to-"
"Try ultrasound. Remember the spiked plants we encountered outside the
station? Try that; put all the power into the broadcast that you can! Even if
it's potentially harmful to me."
"Excellent suggestion, sir."
A slight hum filled the suit. Evan knew he wasn't hearing the sound the
MHW was generating but rather the suit's instrumentation operating at far more
than communications strength.
Page 41
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

angamoss.xlx.pl