"Benford G - Furious Gulf" - читать интересную книгу автора (Benford Gregory)

said was right. Nobody could have guessed what they'd see out here. But
Killeen had come out, again and again. Hammering away at a Cap'n's
problems, thinking, worrying, pacing the hull, looking without knowing
what he was looking for. And some of the crew had thought he was crazy.
Toby listened as Killeen called the Bridge and ordered Argo toward
the shadowy cloud. Understanding came slowly amid the crew. He could
hear on comm as the ship stirred with excited voices, with hope, with joy.
--Dad?--he finally asked.
Killeen was giving a flurry of orders. Crew had to prepare to hunt, to
forage, to pursue strange game in inky vacuum depths. To do things they
had never tried before. Had never even imagined.
Killeen paused and said curtly,--Yeasay?--
--We can hole up inside the cloud for a while. Rest up. Get our
bearings.--
Killeen shook his head furiously.--Naysay. Resupply, that's all.
There's True Center. Look at it! We're so close now.-
Toby peered ahead, through dusty clumps already wreathing the hull
of Argo as the great ship headed into the recesses of the giant cloud. At max
mag he could make out the exact center of the galaxy. White-hot. Beautiful.
Dangerous.
And his father, he now saw, could never be deflected from that goal.
Not by starvation. Not by deadly risks. Not by the weight of past sorrow.
They would fly straight into the gnawing center of all this gaudy,
swirling chaos. On an impossible voyage. Looking for something, with no
clear idea of what it might be. , n
this is what we were born to
Killeen grinned broadly.--C mo , son,
do. We'll go onward. Inward. There's all our Family's past here, somewhere.
We'll find out what happened, who we are.----Crew
doesn't like that kind of talk, Dad.-He
frowned.--How come?----This
is a scary place.--
--So? They haven't seen the glory of it, haven't really thought it
through. When the time comes, they'll follow
--We're running for our lives, Dad.--
--So?--Killeen grinned, a jaunty human gesture amid the wash of
galactic light.--We always have been.--

 FURIOUS GULF
7


Particle Storm


The carapace glides like a hunting hornet.

Its thorax is of high-impact matte ceramic. Bone-white lattices mimic
ribs. Storage balloons inflate like lungs as it exchanges plasma charge. Slow
rises, fluttering exhales.