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.Indiana Jones HadIt Coming.Joe chimed in, almost giggling with relief. Lara Crusht, Tomb Raider No More. Hey, that s good.The sequel to follow: The Mummy  SHUT UP! Helen and Madeleine shouted simultaneously. Please, added Rich.A.J.choked off the rest.Then:  Ah, right.Let s get Madeline out of her new job as a roof column.Joe,switch from movie fan mode to engineer mode, will you? This is going to be tricky, since we don t havemuch in the way of material to make supports from.With three of them working together, it took about four hours to get sufficient bracing jacked into placeto let Madeline relax her suit.Most of the  bracing, unfortunately, was nothing fancier than movingpieces of ice and a few loose rocks into what they hoped was a supportive structure.None of them were very happy with the results, when it was done.The  support structure looked morelike a pile of rubble than anything else.But at least, at Joe s suggestion, they d been able to carefullyposition the ripper in such as way as to serve as a more substantial brace for what seemed to be theshakiest area.That done, at Madeline s insistence, the others cleared the corridor.Then she unlocked the suit and,slowly and gingerly, lowered her arms.But there was no sign of movement from the roof, except a very slight slippage that Jack the Ripper stines kept from moving more than a few inches.Almost tip-toeing her way, Madeline came out of thecorridor.Once safely outside, she started wiggling her arms to get them working again.Four hoursholding her hands over her head, even in low gravity and with the suit doing the actual load-bearing, hadnot done pleasant things to her blood circulation. Not so bad, really, she assured them. I ve done worse in other places.Helen suddenly hugged her.A moment later, A.J.and Rich joined in.For about a minute, the four peoplewere clutched in a spacesuited huddle far beneath the surface of Mars, all of them shaking a little as thereaction finally set in.Madeline finally broke it up. Come on, guys.I appreciate it I really, really do but we ve still gotwork ahead of us. Not now! Joe s voice almost shouted.Then, more calmly:  Seriously.Helen, I m not going to tell youwhat to do, but  No problem, Joe.I ve got no intention of continuing our investigation today.We all need a rest.Even ifwe didn t, our oxygen reserves are too low to do anything more than come out.Startled a bit he hadn t thought to check in a while A.J.took the readings. You re right about that. Are you going to be okay? Joe asked, concern coming back into his voice. Relax, willya? said A.J. We ve got plenty left to make our way out even leaving aside theemergency tanks we left at the bottom of the cliff.But Helen s right.We don t want to fool around withanything else today.If another emergency happened, we d be truly and royally screwed.For all that Helen s intellect told her they were doing the right thing, all of her emotions and professionalinstincts pulled her in the other direction.They were on the verge the verge, damnation! of what mightprove to be another extraordinary discovery.Now that the ice dust had completely settled, she couldeasily see that beckoning door at the other end of the tunnel where they d almost died.She shook her head, firmly, and turned to follow the others as they headed toward the surface.A.J.made a wisecrack once they reached Melted Way.For once, Helen thought it was appropriate.Sort of. Hey, look at it this way.Live to loot another day.Chapter 49In the event, exploring the Bemmie base had to be postponed for some time.Captain Hathaway wasadamant that means of securing the unstable roof areas had to be put in place first. We came that close to losing two-thirds of our people down there, he stated forcefully. No way will Ipermit that risk to be taken again, until I m satisfied that we ve dealt with the problem.That s final,Helen, so don t even bother arguing about it.In truth, Helen wasn t really inclined to argue anyway.Much as part of her desperately wanted to get intothat base, that part was easily disciplined by the very experienced boss of many field digs.A.J.took a bit of stifling, of course.But, by now, Helen was the acknowledged world expert championof the entire solar system, in fact at the Art and Science of Stifling A.J.Baker.Admittedly, she had theadvantage of being able to use a means of coercion not available to anyone else.The problem then became.How? It s ridiculous! A.J.snarled. We ve managed to cross interplanetary space using umpteen forms ofmodern cutting-edge technology.And now we re stumped because we don t have any He spat out the last two words as if they were the foulest profanity:   stupid wood.Joe was almost as frustrated, but he couldn t help grinning. Well, it just goes to show  I don t want to hear it!  that sometimes grandpa s ways are still the best.A.J.glared at him.Joe spread his hands. What do you want me to say? It s just a fact.Old-fashionedand  stupid as it may be, wood is still the best material for a jillion purposes.Shoring up shaky tunnelsbeing one of them. Fine. A.J.shifted the glare to Bruce Irwin. Get on the radio and tell Hathaway to send us down somepine tree seeds.Or bulbs whatever the stupid things grow from [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]