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"Ferry, Ekel - if we don’t get TaoLini back into Sickbay, she could die You want that on your conscience? Don’t let yourselves in for trouble ove "

Ferry snapped off the vocoder

Hali took a deep breath "What now?"

"This will either be the ride of your life or no life at all Hang on"

Ferry cleared the console and hit the reset key, then override and ram

"Hit it," Hali said

He depressed the key A powerful treh their cabin

Hali looked at him She had never suspected such action and deterht up in soram of his own She realized then that the old ht manual," he said

Afrom an overhead vocoder: "You have a manual"

"Who the hell are you?" Ferry demanded

"I aned for conventional or conversational prograencies You wish to separate from Ship, correct?"

"Yes, bu"

A roar shuddered through the freighter The forward plaz displayed a blinding glia, then a panoraan a slow one-eighty turn toward Pandora, and Hali saw a gaping hole that had been Docking Bay Eight Roboxes already were swared edges

"Well," Ferry muttered, "what now?"

Hali tried to s in a dry throat, then: "What Waela said - the cradle of the sea Does she know so abou ?"

"Life support has been activated," Bitten announced "Does the sleeping one require additional attention?"

Hali jerked around and studied her patient Waela lay in quiet sleep, her chest rising and falling evenly Hali unstrapped, crept back to Waela’s side and ran a test series: Everything read as normal as could be expected - blood pressure up a bit, adrenaline on the high side but dropping No medication was indicated

Ferry’s voice intruded on Hali’s thoughts then as he asked Bitten for their ETA to Pandora’s atmosphere

Hali turned and stared at the planet with a growing sense of wonder Her shipboard life was ended The only thing she knew for sure about her life noas that she still had it

Bitten’sfilled the cabin: "Two hours, thirty-five minutes to at at Colony"

"We can’t dock at Colony!" Hali said She made her way back to her seat and strapped down "What are our alternatives?"

"Colony is the only docking station approved for this vessel," Bitten intoned

"What about a surface landing?"

"Certain conditions pere to vessel and crew But our departure destroyed all forward landing gear and docking valves These are not necessary at Colony"

"But we can’t land at Colony!" She stared at Ferry, who sat frozen either in fear or conation

"Survival of unprotected crew elsewhere on Pandora surface not likely," Bitten intoned

Hali felt herthat this whole thing was high draed and unreal She looked at Ferry He continued to stare out the forward plaz That was it: Ferry was acting out of character - too far out

But Murdoch’s ea that hole in Shi

"We can’t go back to Ship and we can’t dock at Colony and we can’t land in the open," she said

"We’re trapped," Ferry agreed, and she did not like the calm way he said it