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three storeys high, showed beyond.
Horza went to another wall and repositioned some levers. He tapped a couple of
dials, peered into a bright screen, then rubbed his hands together and put his
thumb over a button on the central console. 'Well, this is it,' he said.
He brought his thumb down on the button.
'Yes!'
'Hey-hey!'
'We did it!'
'About time, too, if you ask me.'
'Hmm, little one, so that's how it's done . . . '
' . . . Shit! If I'd known it was this colour I wouldn't have started it . . .
'
Horza heard the others. He took a deep breath and turned to look at Wubslin.
The stocky engineer stood, blinking slightly, in the bright lights of the
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power control room. He smiled.
'Great,' he said. He looked round the room, still nodding. 'Great. At last.'
'Well done, Horza,' Yalson said.
Horza could hear other switches, bigger ones, automatics linked to the master
switch he had closed, moving in the space beneath his feet. Humming noises
filled the room, and the smell of burning dust rose like the warm scent of an
awakening animal all around him. Light flooded in from the station outside.
Horza and Wubslin checked a few meters and monitors, then went outside.
The station was bright. It sparkled; the grey-black walls reflected the strip
lights and glow panels which covered the roof. The Command System train, now
seen properly for the first time, filled the station from end to end: a
shining metal monster, like a vast android version of a segmented insect.
Yalson took off her helmet, ran her fingers through her short-cropped hair and
looked up and around, squinting in the bright yellow-white light falling from
the station roof high above.
'Now, then,' Unaha-Closp said, floating over towards Horza. The machine's
casing glittered in the harsh new light. 'Where exactly is this device we're
looking for?' It came close to Horza's face. 'Does your suit sensor register
it? Is it here? Have we found it?'
Horza pushed the machine away with one hand. 'Give me time, drone. We only
just got here. I
got the power on, didn't I?' He walked past it, followed by Yalson, still
looking about her, and
Wubslin, also staring, though mostly at the gleaming train. Lights shone
inside it. The station filled with the hum of idling motors, the hiss of air
circulators and fans. Unaha-Closp floated round to face Horza, reversing
through the air while keeping level with the man's face.
'What do you mean? Surely all you have to do is look at the screen; can you
see the Mind on there or not?' The drone came closer, dipping down to look at
the controls and the small screen on
Horza's suit cuff. He swatted it away.
'I'm getting some interference from the reactor.' Horza glanced at Wubslin.
'We'll cope with it.'
'Take a look round the repair area, check the place out,' Yalson said to the
machine. 'Make yourself useful.'
'It isn't working, is it?' Unaha-Closp said. It kept pace with Horza, still
facing him and backing through the air in front of him. 'That three-legged
lunatic smashed the mass sensor on the pallet, and now we're blind; we're back
to square one, aren't we?'
'No,' Horza said impatiently, 'we are not. We'll repair it. Now, how about
doing something useful for a change?'
'For a change?' Unaha-Closp said with what sounded like feeling. 'For a
change? You're forgetting who it was saved all your skins back in the tunnels
when our cute little Idiran liaison officer over there started running amuck.'
'All right, drone,' Horza said through clenched teeth. 'I've said thank you.
Now, why don't you take a look around the station, just in case there's
anything to be seen.'
'Like Minds you can't spot on wasted suit mass sensors, for example? And what
are you lot going to be doing while I'm doing that?'
'Resting,' Horza said. 'And thinking.' He stopped at Xoxarle and inspected the
Idiran's bonds.
'Oh, great,' Unaha-Closp sneered. 'And a lot of good all your thinking has
done - '
'For fuck's sake, Unaha-Closp,' Yalson said, sighing heavily, 'either go or
stay, but shut up.'
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'I see! Right!' Unaha-Closp drew away from them and rose in the air. 'I'll
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