From How It Is by Gordon
As Cormac stepped from the stage-one runcible on Samarkand the cold hit him like a hammer of ice. There were hastily rigged heaters in the containment sphere, but the temperature was not much above the lower limit necessary to sustain human life. Ahead of him, Aiden was half-carrying Thorn towards the exit and the covered walkway beyond. He surveyed the sphere as Mika ran past him. The proton weapon he had requested was resting on one of the heaters. He eyed it, then glanced over as his three companions hesitated at the exit.
'Get in the car. I'll be there in a minute.'
He went over to the weapon and touched it with his fingertip. It was cold, but, with conduction from the heater, not so cold as to take his skin off. He raised it, pointed it at the floor to the left of the runcible and, with the beam narrowed to pencil thickness, fired. The beam struck, diffracted through, and lit up everything underneath so that the black floor became transparent. As he traversed the beam, molten glass drained away behind it. With the hidden machinery revealed, Cormac found a duct and burnt through it. After the beam went out, fires still burnt under the glass. He looked at the resultant mess thoughtfully for a moment, then followed the others to the exit.
The AGC stood only four metres from the sphere, and the others were inside waiting for him. He reached the door of the car and ducked halfway inside. Then, estimating relative positions, he pointed the weapon at the wall of the covered walkway.
'What the hell…?' said Thorn.
'I've got to hit at least one of the buffers from the outside. All I did in there was burn out some of the safety automatics.'
Cormac fired wide-beam. A section of wall, two metres long by a metre wide, disappeared in a purple flash. He could now see the edge of the buffer, and redirected the beam. Metal flashed away in seconds, exposing coils of doped superconductors and paralectric crystals. A hidden canister blew its contents and leapt into the sky on a tail of gas and flame. As Cormac shut down the beam, a fog of CO2 vapour obscured all, then CO2 snow began to fall. Cormac ducked into the car and slammed shut the insulated door, just before his eyes froze over.
'Out of here… now…' he managed to gasp, and began to shiver violently. He was not the only one, for the inside of the car was as cold as the inside of the containment sphere.
Aiden slammed the AGC up into Samarkand midnight, not bothering to disconnect from the walkway. The walkway held for a moment, then broke and fell away like a snake that has just missed its prey. From the windows of the AGC they could see one of the runcible buffers glowing with the colours of magma.
'OK… Aiden, no airspeed restrictions here. What's it capable of?'
'Fourteen hundred kilometres per hour, in safety; any faster than that and I might lose it.'
'Fast enough,' said Cormac. 'Fast enough.'
He leant back in his seat next to Mika and looked across at the dracoman, then he glared out through the window. Poised in the sky, like a watching moon: Dragon.
Gridl inked
'I knew it wouldn't miss this. Gloating bastard.'
Mika turned to him questioningly, but he offered up no further comment, for just then Aiden applied full acceleration. They were all thrust back in their seats so hard they had not the breath to speak anyway. Only when the AGC was streaking along at its maximum speed did the pressure relax. Cormac looked at the clock set into the dash. It was on solstan time, permanently updated by a signal from Samarkand II.
'I wonder when it will come through,' said Thorn carefully.
'Any time now, I should imagine,' said Cormac flatly. 'Could be right this… second.'
At that moment Samarkand experienced a premature day. The light was hard and white: an ungentle light that lasted for twenty seconds and seemed to find and burn away every shadow. When it went out, they looked back at a growing sphere of yellow fire, cut through with sheetlike flashes of lightning.
'One unmade Maker,' commented Cormac.
Thorn looked at him in exasperation, about to say something. Cormac gave a fractional shake of his head, and flicked his eyes at the dracoman.
'How long till we reach the complex?' he asked Aiden.
'Not long: quarter of an hour.'
Thorn turned to face forwards. He asked no more questions.
'I think you can slow up now,' said Cormac, and closed his watering eyes.
It was difficult getting their coldsuits on in the confinement of the AGC, so they had only managed to get fully clothed by the time Aiden was bringing them in to land. With his body temperature rising, Cormac began to feel the coldburn on his face and the backs of his hands. When the temperature reached its optimum, he felt in some pain, and did not relish the prospect of pulling off his gloves.
Aiden set them down at the edge of the complex and, as they left the car, three suited figures came out to meet them. The dracoman began shivering, but this was the only effect the extreme cold had on it. It otherwise walked along as if taking a stroll on a mildly wintry day. Aiden walked likewise.
'Y' made it then,' came Blegg's voice over the com.
'Yes, and the Maker has paid for its crimes,' replied Cormac.
'And a perfectly good stage-one runcible obliterated,' muttered Chaline.
Cormac did not reply to that. 'Let's get inside,' he said, 'I want to see how much skin I've lost.'
The building they entered was a recent addition to the complex. They passed dirough a cold lock to get inside, and had to wait for a few minutes while their suits and the air around them was heated. Beyond this was an unsuiting room, with its lockers for the suits, showers and blow dryers, a machine for dispensing hot drinks, and lockers containing fresh clothing. Mika and Thorn were quickly out of their suits and soon drinking cups of hot soup. The other three - Blegg, Chaline and surprisingly, Cam - got unsuited just as quickly. Cormac took his time, leaving his gloves for last.
'Ow! Shit!'
Patches of skin lifted off the backs of his hands and his fingers. His face was not a lot better. Chaline reached into a nearby locker, took out an aerosol and approached him.
'Synthskin - it will seal the burns and kill the pain. It's good that it hurts. If mere had been no pain, you'd then have had cause to worry.'
He held out his hands, and as she sprayed them they went gloriously numb. She did the same for his face, holding her finger over each of his eyelids in turn to prevent them becoming sealed shut.
'Thorn? Mika?' She turned to them next.
Bodi of them had a redness to face and hands, but neither had caught the brunt of it like Cormac.
'I'm fine, just a litde coldburn,' said Thorn.
Mika held up her hand when Chaline turned to her queryingly, and continued sipping at her soup.
During all this, Blegg had stood silently to one side.
Cormac eventually addressed him: 'I want to get back to Hubris.'
'More?' wondered Blegg.
'More,' Cormac confirmed.
Chaline looked from one of them to the other. 'What's—'
Cormac interrupted. 'You can stay here and get on with setting up the stage-two runcible. Ten hours, didn't you say?'
'Less now, we've already been working on it,' she said.
'Good… Good.' He turned back to Blegg. 'Any communication from Dragon while we were on Viridian?'
'Nothing of any consequence…'
Cormac shot a question at Chaline. 'What condition is Hubris in now?'
'Pretty good,' said Chaline, eyeing him warily.
'Is there a shuttle ready to leave now}'