The Abyss Beyond Dreams by Peter F. Hamilton Page A

systems also packed up. That was more worrying. The air was still breathable, but the gentle rush of air coming from the
vents was severely reduced.
    Laura went down to the payload bay’s equipment lockers and returned with two portable atmosphere filters. The thick metre-long cylinders were completely independent, with a grille on each
end. One end sucked in air, which was scrubbed and filtered and blown out of the other end. She strapped them onto a couple of couches. She tested them, and switched them off again.
    She did her best not to stare at Joey when she was sorting out the portable filters. He was still strapped onto his couch. But the shakes on his hands were moving down his arms, causing both
limbs to twitch.
    ‘Keep going,’ his mental voice told her. ‘I can manage.’
    ‘You sure?’
    ‘Yes. I’m keeping busy. The shuttle’s external sensors are still working – some of them, anyway. I’m still trying to see if I can spot the ships down on the
surface. There’s certainly no evidence of a crash so far.’
    ‘That’s good.’ She caught the unease in his thought. By now she had enough experience to know it was powered by something more than just his physical deterioration. ‘What
is it?’
    He shook his head – a sharp juddering motion. ‘There’s something wrong.’
    ‘Wrong?’
    ‘Yes. I’m looking and looking at the planet, and I know there’s something wrong with what I’m seeing, but I don’t know what.’
    ‘What kind of thing?’ she asked cautiously.
    A spasm rippled over his twisted-up features. ‘I don’t know. I’m looking right at it. I know I am. But I can’t see it.’
    ‘Can I help? Do you want me to review the images with you?’
    ‘No. Thanks. I’ll find it.’
    ‘Okay.’ There was a lot she wanted to say about how his illness might be affecting his thoughts. Instead, she gave him a sympathetic smile and pushed off to glide down the aisle.
    ‘How’s the Viking’s signal?’ she asked, when she rejoined Ayanna up at the front of the cabin.
    ‘Not bad.’
    A display screen on the console was showing the Viking approaching the tip of the tree. The exopod’s strobes were flashing away in the centre of the picture.
    Laura watched the lander approach the shallow fold where Ibu and Rojas had vanished. Ayanna was remote flying it competently, bringing it to rest a hundred metres from the exopod.
    ‘I was thinking,’ Ayanna said. ‘If they are inside those globes somehow, we don’t know which ones. So I’m going to start drilling one of the small ones, something
they couldn’t possibly be held in.’
    ‘Sure,’ Laura said. ‘Good idea.’ She hadn’t been thinking quite along those lines. Some part of her was expecting to use the drill to free their missing team
members – even if exactly how eluded her.
    The Viking descended to hover less than a metre above a globe that measured a metre ten in diameter. The little onboard array held it in place with small bursts from its ion thrusters and
deployed the drill.
    ‘We’re going to have trouble countering the torque,’ Laura said. ‘There’s not much fuel on board. The Viking wasn’t designed for space operations, just
getting through the atmosphere intact and landing.’
    ‘I know,’ Ayanna said.
    The ion thrusters flared and the Viking began to rotate around its axis. The drill spun up. Powerful landing thrusters flared briefly, pushing the Viking hard towards the globe. The picture
shook as the drill touched the upper surface of the globe. Then it turned to smears as the Viking began to spin. Thrusters fired again, trying to compensate. Now the image was of juddering
smears.
    ‘What the—’ Ayanna exclaimed.
    The Viking was suddenly shooting off, away from the tree, tumbling end over end.
    Laura stared at the hologram which was showing the combined imagery from the Mk16b drones. ‘Oh my, will you look at that?’ The Viking’s drill must have succeeded in penetrating
the small globe.