"Kevin J Anderson - Scientific Romance" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anderson Kevin J)

Scientific Romance - short story by Kevin J Anderson



Scientific Romance
a short story by Kevin J Anderson
Late after dark on a chill November night, young Wells followed T. H.
Huxley up to the labyrinthine rooftop. The air felt damp, tinged with a
clammy mist, yet the sky overhead was dark and clear and sparkling with
stars.
The meteors would begin falling soon.
The minarets and gables of London's Normal School of Science provided
nooks, crannies, gutters and eaves where students could hold secret
meetings, perhaps rendezvous with young girls from the poorer sections of
South Kensington. Wells doubted, though, that any of his classmates would
climb to the sprawling rooftop for the same purpose as his teacher and
mentor led him now.
Huxley's creaking bones and aching limbs forced the old man to move slowly
along the precarious shingles. Wells knew better than to offer the
professor any assistance. Huxley finally found a spot against a gable and
eased himself down. Leaning backward, he propped his head up and stared
into the depths of the universe.
"Is this your first meteor shower, Herbert?" Huxley asked. "The Leonids
are a good place to start. We should see about twenty per hour."
Wells, at only eighteen and much more limber, struggled to find his own
comfortable observation place. "I've seen shooting stars before, sir," he
said, "but I've never actually ... studied them."
Huxley gave a wheezing laugh. His voice sounded strange to Wells, a
private conversational tone instead of the forceful oratory for which he
had become famous across England. "From what I can see, young man, you
study every facet of life with those quick and darting eyes of yours."
Wells blushed, then ran a hand across his face to hide his embarrassment.
His unkempt dark hair fell over his forehead, and his mustache showed gaps
where the whiskers hadn't yet filled in enough.
He fidgeted, working himself into an awkward squat, holding onto a gutter
for balance. Huxley intended to stay out here for hours, but the
conversation interested Wells more than his personal comfort. Ideas made
mankind superior to other creatures ... and superior men had superior
ideas.
The flash in his peripheral vision took him completely by surprise.
"There!" he shouted, gesturing so rapidly that he nearly lost his
precarious balance on the angled roof. A streak of brilliant white light
shot overhead then evaporated, so transient it seemed barely an afterimage
on his eyes.
"The first meteor of the night," Huxley said with a smile, "and you
spotted it, Wells. I'm proud of you. But of course, your eyesight is much
better than mine."
"But your eyes have seen more things, sir," Wells said, then hated the
reverential tone he had let slip.
"Don't flatter me," Huxley warned. The old man's wit and intellect were as