"Kevin J. Anderson -1993- Assemblers of Infinity (v1.0) (txt)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anderson Kevin J)

While Pritchard gawked, Albert Fukumitsu, the duty manager, waved her over. "Director McConnell, we've been trying to track you down!" He wiped sweat off his forehead. He had shaggy black hair tucked behind a headband. "Jason Dvorak keeps calling from Moonbase Columbus."

"I had my pager shut off," Celeste said. She had enjoyed her few moments of peace enough to make the headaches of being out of touch worthwhile. "Jason needs to stop panicking and handle a little more himself."

Fukumitsu looked at her with a wry, skeptical expression. "This is a somewhat unusual circumstance."

"Agreed. Did he launch the telepresence probe on schedule?"

"Yes, an hour ago." He waved his hand toward the screens on the wall. One of the technicians, eavesdropping, called up a file that showed the sequence of the hopper rising up in a puff of methane. "ETA at the Daedalus site in about ten minutes."

"Long enough to get Jason on-line." Celeste pulled up one of the chairs vacated by an off-duty tech and sat down beside Fukumitsu. "He's probably fidgeting like a new father in the hospital waiting room."

She still smiled at how unlikely being in charge must seem to Dvorak, and she certainly couldn't explain to him the reasons behind her unexpected decision to place him in command.

Dvorak was an award-winning, innovative architect; he had grown bored with the mundane work on Earth after having designed the impossible a dozen times over. Then he had used his connections to get himself an audience with the director of the United Space Agency. When he sat down across the desk from her, Celeste had had no idea at all why he wanted to see her. But when he began to spill his idea about revamping the entire moonbase, getting it ready for the explosion of inhabitants that would arrive as soon as the Mars mission was a success, Dvorak had won her over. "They are our pioneers," he had said. "Right now they're living in flimsy tents. Let me give them log cabins at least."

She had approved his training and his assignment, and after nearly a year on the moonbase, scoping possibilities, reconfiguring some of the living quarters, Jason Dvorak had already made his mark on daily life up there. Without giving him any preparation time, she had rotated the former moonbase commander, Bernard Chu, up to the Collins waystation at L-2, while sending Collins's former commander, Eileen Dannon, back Earthside, where her frequent disagreements with Celeste could be covered up much easier.

At first, Dvorak had reveled in his dream-come-true assignment, but at times like this he was proving to be too much of a nice guy to make tough decisions under stress. Maybe Bernard Chu would be better off back down on the Moon, at least for the interim ... ever since the Grissom disaster eleven years before, he had supported her in everything she asked.

But no, Jason Dvorak had only been in full command for two weeks now. He deserved more of a chance.

"Let me see Waite's pictures," she said. Fukumitsu nodded to one of the techs, who worked on pulling up the images.

General Pritchard came up beside her, relaxed in his Air Force uniform. "Daedalus -- that's where some of your astronomy equipment is stationed on the lunar Farside."

"That's right."

The image of the crater as seen from Trevor Waite's viewpoint appeared. "Zoom in," Fukumitsu said.

The images of the Daedalus anomaly resolved themselves on a large window that blossomed in the center of the wall. Unlike the general's computer-generated graphics, though, these images were real. She felt her skin crawl with an eerie foretaste of what would be in store for the world as soon as they understood what was really happening on the Moon. She had had nightmares about this.

"We're still analyzing the situation," Celeste said to Pritchard, "but I hope we know something new in a few minutes."

On the screens, they saw close-ups of Daedalus, its flat crater floor dominated by pieces of the VLF array and the smooth-walled pit covered with a translucent framework of the main structure. The white lines looked like an architectural sketch, a 3-D blueprint that had somehow appeared but had left no debris, no seismic signatures, no obvious clues as to its origin.

The general seemed to comprehend that this was something far more bizarre than he had expected. "What is this? Where did it come from?"

At that moment, the main portion of the videowall was supplanted by a too-close image of Jason Dvorak. His brown eyes were bright with fatigue, his dark curly hair mussed, but his lips had a persistent upturn that always made him look about to break into a grin. He stepped back into better focus.

"Director McConnell, I was beginning to wonder if you'd be here to witness the probe."

Celeste smoothed her trim business suit and stood into prime focus. She was petite, but carried a powerful presence. Her eyes were dark enough to look like black lacquer. Newsnet profiles insisted on calling her the Ice Lady. She spoke softly, letting her voice carry a chiding tone, but not enough to jeopardize her working relationship with Dvorak.

"Jason, I agreed to be here, but I didn't promise to be early." After a half-beat of silence, she continued. "This is Major General Simon Pritchard. He's here to add his thoughts. Perhaps together we can figure this thing out."

Pritchard nodded with surprise, but he recovered quickly. Holding a conversation from the Earth to the Moon with its resultant transmission lag was a bit like a drunkard's walk, two steps forward, then a pause to catch bearings, and then another two steps forward again.

Dvorak looked off screen. He nodded, then said, "Switching to the cameras on the hopper." The view expanded to take in a group of people clustered around him.