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the excursion air-lock from the terra-forming centre." He took Sharna by the
arm and turned to the shuttle's open air-lock doors.
"Thanks for everything, both of you," said Darv.
Telson nodded. "If we ever win total control over the Challenger, we'll
return to Paradise to see how you're faring --radiation or no radiation." He
gave a half smile. "We're going to miss you both. . . But we've said all that.
Come on, Sharna --there's a control desk we've got to learn how to use."
Telson and Sharna returned to the terra-forming centre and sat at the two
consoles that faced the window overlooking the excursion terminal. Sharna
contacted Astra to ensure that the shuttle was sealed before she cut the
excursion terminal's artificial gravity and touched the controls to open the
main air-lock door that the shuttle was facing.
In the shuttle, Darv watched the huge door sliding open and applied a
short burst of directional thrust to lift the craft off the floor of the
terminal.
"Thank you, Sharna," he acknowledged. "Moving into the air-lock now."
Light came on inside the cavernous interior of the freight air-lock as
Darv edged the shuttle forward. His rear-view screen showed the door sliding
shut.
"Evacuating air-lock," Telson's voice reported.
As soon as the ambient air-pressure reading in front of Darv reached
zero, the outer hull door began sliding open. What started as a slit of stars
slowly widened to become a forbidding rectangle of countless millions of
burning points of light.
Darv glanced sideways at Astra who was staring at the stars with a fixed
expression. "You can still change your mind," he suggested gently.
Astra shook her head without speaking.
Darv applied a burst of rearward thrust that sent the shuttle edging
forward into space. It cleared the shadow of the Challenger's stupendous bulk
and was bathed in weak sunlight. At a distance of a thousand million miles,
the sun was little more than a disc of light, but it was several billion times
nearer than the nearest star and was therefore the brightest object in the
heavens.
"Shuttle to Challenger," Darv reported. "Separation complete."
The shuttle cruised the entire length of the mighty starship, crossing
the gulf of tangled and twisted metal that marked the site of the Great
Meteoroid Strike. It moved towards the prow of the ship and the semi-circle of
brightly-lit view ports of the deserted main control room.
"Ten seconds to main engine burn," said Darv as he orientated the shuttle
in accordance with graphics on the inertial navigation screen.
"For the first time I feel safe." said Astra quietly.
"We haven't got anywhere yet."
"I don't care. I feel safe."
There were final farewells from Telson and Sharna. "Don't forget to radio
us your landing site," was Telson's final reminder.
The main rocket engine fired automatically as Darv completed his
acknowledgement. The gap between the shuttle and the Challenger widened slowly
at first and then with increasing rapidity as the tiny craft accelerated into
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its thousand million mile fall towards the distant sun.
* * * *
The guardian angels watched the departing space shuttle with equanimity.
They accepted that they had failed abysmally with Darv and Astra. The
knowledge increased their determination to ensure that the same thing did not
happen with Telson and Sharna. As soon as the couple were in suspended
animation, an immediate start would be made on building a fourth-generation
crew.
* * * *
"That's it," said Telson, standing up. "There's no point in staying here
any longer. We can speak to them from the main control room."
Sharna moved away from the desk she had been sitting at and paused by a
console that they had not used. There were no control areas marked on the
featureless surface.
"I wonder what this desk is for, Telson?"
Telson shrugged. "All the equipment in this place is a bit of a mystery."
"That's why we ought to familiarise ourselves with it."
"Not now, Sharna," said Telson moving to the terra-forming centre's
entrance.
"Why not? What else is there for us to do? We've got ten days until we
know whether or not Darv and Astra have made a safe landing. And you agreed
that we make no attempt to leave this solar system until then." Without
waiting for Telson's reply, Sharna sat down at the strange console and
activated it by passing her hand back and forth above its featureless surface.
The console came to life. As Sharna stared down, symbols and graphics
began to glow on the surface and increase in intensity.
"Telson -- come and look at this."
Sharna's tone was enough for Telson to move to her side.
"What do you make of that?"
Lines were appearing on the surface. At first Telson thought that he was
looking at an electronic circuit and then he realised that it was a plan of
the ship. "It doesn't make sense," he muttered. "Why have a control desk
without any controls?"
"Unless it's some sort of data screen," said Sharna, every bit as baffled
as Telson.
The information of the horizontal screen became clearer. Corridors and
passageways were identified by their numbers, and a legend appeared that
indicated the terra-forming centre.
"My God," Telson breathed softly. "Look, Sharna! Just look at that!" His
finger trembled slightly as it traced a series of parallel lines that ended at
a box symbol that was identified by the caption:
ANCILLARY GUARDIANS OF ENVIRONMENT AND LIFE -- SYSTEM ONE AND SYSTEM TWO
-- CENTRAL SWITCHING ROOM.
Sharna's face was ashen as she met Telson's eyes. "It's on this level,"
she said hollowly. And then she was virtually shouting: "The angel's central
switching room is on this level!"
* * * *
The sixth planet of the solar system was like no planet that Darv and
Astra had ever seen. It had a breathtaking system of braided rings that formed
a multi-coloured equatorial band around the methane and ammonia giant. Astra
measured the diameter of the rings with the shuttle's instruments and arrived
at a value of 170,000 miles, yet they were so thin that they seemed to
disappear as he shuttle passed them edge on.
The fifth planet was on the far side of the sun and was therefore
invisible to the shuttle's optical instruments. The fourth planet was similar
to Kyros in their home solar system --a reddish-hued barren world with ice-
caps of frozen carbon-dioxide.
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But five days after separation from the Challenger it was the third
planet and its crater-scarred moon that was holding the couple's rapt
attention.
After six days it was possible to discern the illuminated crescents of
both bodies without the aid of the telescope. The passing of each hour brought
a noticeable increase in the apparent size of Paradise and its satellite: as
the shuttle dropped closer towards the sun, so the sun's rapidly mounting
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