"Ben Bova - Jupiter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bova Ben)

Ignoring her crudity, Grant found his voice at last. "Thank you."

"Wait," she said. "Don't be in such a hurry to run away." She gave the computer another command, leaning so close to Grant that he could smell her faintly sweaty, acrid odor, feel the heat of her body.

"Be patient," she said, straightening up as the view of lo zoomed out again.

Grant kept his eyes on the screen. "What should I be looking for?"

"You'll see."

The splotchy red-yellow disk of Io suddenly winked out. It took half a heartbeat for Grant to realize it had entered Jupiter's broad, deep shadow.

"Give it a moment," the captain whispered from behind him.

Grant saw a faint greenish glow appear, a ghostly pale luminescence, sickly, like the dying light from some weird deep-sea creature. He was too surprised to speak.

"Energetic particles from Jupiter's magnetosphere make IO'S atmosphere glow. Too faint to see unless Io is in shadow."

Right, Grant thought. He remembered reading about it somewhere. Oxygen and sulfur atoms excited by collisions with magnetosphere particles. Like the auroras on Earth, same physical mechanism. But seeing it was still a surprise, a gift of wonder.

"Thank you," he said again, turning from the screen to look up at her.

The captain shrugged her hefty shoulders. "I wanted to be a scientist when I was your age. Explore the solar system. Seek out new life, make new discoveries." She sighed heavily. "Instead I pilot this bucket."

"It's an important job," Grant said.

"Oh, yes, certainly important." She spoke with an accent Grant amid not quite place. Russian? Polish? "So important that the computer runs the ship most of the time and I have nothing to do but make certain the crew doesn't muck things up."

Grant didn't know how to answer that.

"Well, at least I get to carry handsome young brightboys now and then," said the captain, breaking into an unexpected smile.

Suddenly Grant felt trapped in the wardroom, alone with her.

"I, uh . .." He started to push himself up from his chair. "I still have a lot of studying to do. And I need to send a videogram to my wife. I send her a 'gram every day, and - "

The captain burst into a peal of hearty laughter. "Yes, of course," she said. "I understand, handsome young brightboy. Not to worry."

She laughed and headed for the coffeemaker. "As long as the VR system works, you are perfectly safe, pretty one."

Grant sank back into his chair as she filled her mug, still laughing, and went back to the hatch.

Then she stopped and turned back toward him. "By the way, there's an observation blister just off the bridge. If you want to see Jupiter with your naked eyes, you have my permission to use it."

Grant blinked with surprise. "Um .. . thank you," he said. "Thank you very much. I'm sorry if I - "

But the captain had already turned and started down the passageway toward the bridge, still chuckling to herself.

For long moments Grant sat there alone, wondering if he'd misunderstood the captain and made a fool of himself. But she'd mentioned a virtual reality system. Grant had heard about using VR simulations for sex. That's what she'd meant, he was certain.