（外文电子版资料）Charles Sheffield - Skystalk.pdf

Skystalk by Charles Sheffield Finlays Law: Trouble comes at 3:00 A.M. Thats always been my experience, and Ive learned to dread the hand on my shoulder that shakes me to wakefulness. My dreams had been bad enough, blasting off into orbit on top of an old chemical rocket, riding the torch, up there on a couple of thousand tons of volatile explosives. Ill never understand the nerve of the old-timers, willing to sit up there on one of those monsters. I shuddered, forced my eyes open, and looked up at Marstons anxious face. I was already sitting up. “Trouble?” It was a stupid question, but youre allowed a couple of those when you first wake up. His voice was shaky. “Theres a bomb on the Beanstalk.” I was off the bunk, pulling on my undershirt and groping around for my shoes. Larry Marstons words pulled me bolt upright. “What do you mean,on the Beanstalk?” “Thats what Velasquez told me. He wont say more until you get on the line. Theyre holding a coded circuit open to Earth.” I gave up my search for shoes and went barefoot after Marston. If Arnold Velasquez were right-and I didnt see how he could be-then one of my old horrors was coming true. The Beanstalk had been designed to withstand most natural events, but sabotage was one thing that could never be fully ruled out. At any moment, we had nearly four hundred buckets climbing the Stalk and the same number going down. With the best screening in the world, with hefty rewards for information even ofrumors of sabotage, there was always the small chance that something could be sneaked through on an outbound bucket. I had less worries about the buckets that went down to Earth. Sabotage from the space end had little to offer its perpetrators, and the Colonies would provide an unpleasant form of death to anyone who tried it, with no questions asked. Arnold Velasquez was sitting in front of his screen door at Tether C