Starquake.pdf

The altimeter fluctuated wildly as the undulating crust passed by a few meters below them. Moving at
orbital velocities, they shot under a slowly moving flyer high above them. The underside of the flyer
glowed brightly from the glare below.
"I'll circularize the orbit with magnetic lift to give us a chance," Light-Streak said. "But it won't be long
before we run out of power and the gravity generators fail, leaving us in free fall."
Slippery-Wing concentrated on her instruments and tried not to think of what it would be like to die by
slow disintegration.
Speckle-Top felt the bump of the first crustquake, then the ups-and-downs of the big crustquake that
came after. The ups-and-downs went on and on. Turnfeast time came, and she was hungry. The big
quake was probably keeping the clankers busy, so she started to squirm out of her hiding place. When
she reached the rock covering the entrance, she put part of her tread on it and listened. The only noise
was that of stones rubbing against one another as the crust moved up and down. She
pushed the rock aside a little and peeked out. The glare left streaks in her vision. She pulled the rock
back and retreated into the blackness, hungry and cursing.
Heavy-Egg, his senses extra-alert because of the crustquake, tucked his body into the lift console
station, formed extra manipulators to take over the controls in case any of the automatics stopped
working, and continued to monitor the hum of each of the six deflectors holding up his lift platform. He
slowed the speed of their drop to give the deflectors more margin.
"Snatch that pushout, Metal-Pusher," he said.
"It's still hot, Boss," Metal-Pusher complained.
"I said 'snatch it'," said Heavy-Egg. "That was a big quake, and it'll be back around soon. Quality won't
like it if you bring them in a pair of bangers."
There was a grunt, a curse, and a clang as the hot ring was dropped on the deck of the lift.
The up-deflectors started to change pitch again.
"Here it comes," Heavy-Egg said, six of his eyes on the instrument panel and six eyes on the six streams
of rings above them, glittering in the glow from Egg. The pitch deepened and deepened as the up-going
rings came further and further apart. The deck vibrated with anxious murmurs from the crew. Heavy-Egg
watched the instruments carefully. The automatics were shifting the load from the troubled up-streams to
the stable down-streams. The pitch continued to deepen, then become erratic.
The up-deflector indicators were fluctuating rapidly as the deflectors attempted to straighten out the
ragged stream of rings. There was a clang as another pushout appeared in the catcher. Metal-Pusher was
ready and tried to snatch it, but his hook was knocked from his manipulator by another ring that banged
loudly into the first. Three more rings followed.