Read Choice of the Gallant - Paradox Equation I Page 39

  ****

  "Hi, you look better. Just in time to help me clear some of this out of the way."

  Lane watched Pethnar kick a crumpled strut with a jagged end.

  "Yeah. It put a nasty hole in you. Take it easy. I fixed the hole, but you lost a lot of blood. I do need you to sit on this piece while I move this one. The minute I took the weight off, it would fly up and try to take my head off."

  Pethnar grinned and made dusting motions and a bit of a show of sitting very carefully on the beam Lane had indicated. Lane laughed and removed a mass of metal from beside him.

  "Good. One end. Slide down it and let it rise slowly. All right. Now we can get the rest of this out of the way. Our bow is unstrung. You don't understand the reference? Well, the weight on both ends of the beam bowed it across the debris in the middle. There was an ancient weapon that used a piece of wood... Ah, you get it now."

  The defensive shields were put back on line and Lane set course for the doorway between the universes. Pethnar had come through it by accident and it had saved his life. All Lane could do was go back through and hope the patrol that had attacked Pethnar was gone. He was sure they were. He didn't see them in his future, but he knew things could change. He used things in ship construction record to get the sample needed for his translator and practiced the language, not just words he would say.