Read Adventures of the Starship Satori 4: No Plan Survives Contact for Free Online

toward her.
    "The arches. the tubes leading from this main room - see them?" She aimed a finger at things he had thought were just shadows on the wall. Now that she had pointed them out, he could see that they were indeed tubes.
    "And that area there would be a platform," Beth said, pointed at an elevated spot a few feet away. "The tube we came down was probably some sort of maintenance or ventilation shaft."
    Andy shined his flashlight on the floor, looking around for any signs of tracks. There was nothing he could clearly identify as such, but there was no certainty a race capable of building starships with wormhole drives would need physical rails for their trains. What Beth was suggesting was plausible, but he could think of a few other things the room might have been used for.
    "What matters most right now for us is whether this place is safe or not," Andy said. "So far so good, but let's keep our eyes open."
    "Agreed," John said. "I'll watch the way back. You two finish scouting the room."
    Andy set off toward the right, letting Beth take the left side. He kept tossing little lights out to mark his passage, The cave was a very large one, ominous blackness pressing in from every side. He kept thinking that he was missing something, but damned if he could figure out what it was.

10
    D an stared out through the Satori's windshield, watching Charline's steady progress. The woman had guts, he had to hand it to her. She worked her way down the cable tethering their ship to the satellite, coming closer to the thing one handhold at a time.
    He'd tried talking her out of the move - briefly and half-heartedly. He didn't have any better ideas, and it wasn't like he could go over there instead of her. She was the one with the computer skills to hack her way into that thing. He was the guy with the piloting skills to get them out of there - and save the rest of the crew. Any time now they might be getting a visit from another Naga battleship. The clock was ticking, and there was still no way to even tell John and the others they were alive up here.
    "Majel, how can I get in contact with the team down on the surface? The radio is controlled by the computers, but is there any way to bypass that?" Dan asked.
    "Yes. You could send a radio signal from this laptop, in fact."
    "Oh?" he asked, sitting up at the news.
    "But the antenna is not strong enough to reach the surface by itself. You would need to tie the computer system directly into a stronger antenna," Majel said.
    He slumped a little. The antenna vanes were outside, on the top of the Satori. He'd have to do an EVA to tie anything in to them.
    Even thinking about the idea unnerved him. He'd have to get into a space suit, somehow forcing his legs into the right places while rolling around to get the thing on. Then get it all sealed up properly. Then the actual trip - without being able to use mag boots to keep himself secure against the hull. Without control of his legs he could bang into anything, send himself spinning off into space.
    Dan ran a hand across a damp forehead. No way. Wasn't worth it, not even a little bit. Sure, it would be nice to communicate with John and the others. To let Beth know they were still alive up here. But the last thing Charline needed now was to have him distract her by banging around out there.
    His hand was shaking as he keyed the microphone to talk to her. Damn it all. He'd never been afraid of space before. This was new and unwelcome. With an effort he stilled his hand and then pressed the button.
    "Charline, how's it going out there?" he asked.
    She had almost finished crossing the gap between the ship and the satellite. It was only maybe a hundred meters, but that was a long distance to travel one tug of a cable at a time. All while hanging feet down over a planet so it looked like any moment you might go plunging down through the cloudless air to plant yourself in the desert soil.
    Couldn't happen, of course. They were orbiting at a