Fall of Angels by L. E. Modesitt Jr. Page A

heavy tinted goggles protected his eyes, although he realized that he wasn't using his vision, but that sense of feel, a sense that somehow seemed to break everything into degrees of something. What that something was and how he would categorize it were more questions he couldn't answer.
    He didn't try, instead releasing the power stud and letting his senses check the cut and the metal-which felt rough, almost disordered.
    With another deep breath, he flicked on the laser and spread the beam for a wider heat flow, using his senses and the power from the laser to shape and order the edge of the blade, trying to replicate something like the feel of the . Sybran blade.
    After the second pass, he unpowered the laser and pushed back the goggles, wiping his forehead. Then he bent and picked up the plastic cup, swallowed the last of the water in it, and set the empty cup back on the ground beside the cell bank where the power cable wouldn't hit it.
    One of the marines-Istril-sat atop one of the rocky ledges and watched as he readjusted the goggles and studied the model blade again.
    Once more, he picked up the metal that had been a brace and triggered the laser, shifting his grip, and trying to ensure that his gauntlets were well away from the ordered line of powered chaos emanating from the powerhead.
    After his first rough effort at shaping the blade, he turned to the curved hand guards and tang. As he shaped the metal, he tried to smooth it, just as he once had smoothed power fluxes through the Winterlance's neuronet. When the rough shape was completed, he unpowered the laser and checked the cells-a drop of less than one percent so far. Not too bad for a first try.
    He pushed back the goggles and blotted the area around his eyes, then studied the blank blade. Even with one rough cut, the shape looked better than the local metal crowbars.
    He could feel Istril's eyes on him, but he did not look toward the rocks. The smoke from the cook fire was more pronounced, as was the hum of people talking. He did not look toward the landers, either. Instead, he inhaled, then exhaled deeply and replaced the goggles and lifted the laser.
    Trying not to feel like an idiot, he triggered the laser and continued to use his mental netlike sense and the power of the laser to work the metal, almost to smooth the grains into an ordered pattern while trying to create the equivalent of a razor edge on both sides of the blade.
    By the time he finished with the laser, not that long it seemed, sweat poured down his forehead, out and around the goggles, and his knees trembled. Done with the laser, he set the powerhead down and waited as the metal cooled toward the color of straw.
    The oil - and - water mixture in the crude trough felt right, but whether it was . .. time would tell. Using the modified space gauntlets, he swirled the mixture in the trough and eased the blade into it, letting his new sense guide the tempering-or retempering. Then he laid the blade on the sheltered sunny side of the black boulder where it would complete cooling more slowly.
    He set aside the goggles and checked the power meters- a drop of one percent, maybe a little more. He nodded. He could make something that looked like a blade, but was it any good?
    As he saw Ryba's broad-shouldered figure striding grimly toward him, he offered himself a smile. He'd get one opinion all right-and soon.
    "Why did you take my blade? It had to be you. No one else would-"
    Nylan held up a hand to stop her. "I'm guilty. I didn't hurt it. I needed a model, and I didn't want to feel like a fool."
    "Model for what?"
    His eyes turned toward the flat rock where his effort rested.
    "Darkness! How did you do that?"
    "Art, laser, dumb luck-all of the above. Don't touch it; it's still hot enough to burn your skin, and I don't know if it will work. It looks right; it feels right, but I'm no swordsman. It could shatter the minute it's used. I don't think so, but it could."
    Ryba stepped up to the blade and