"Bova, Ben - Death on Venus" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bova Ben)

Analog -- Death on Venus


July 11 @ 9:00 p.m. EST
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Death on VenusBen Bova




Illustration by Vincent Di Fate
My name is Van Humphries. I will be the first human being to reach the hell-hot
surface of the planet Venus, or I will die in the attempt.
My father gave me no other choice.
All my life my father had looked down on me; despised me and my illness,
sneeringly called me "Runt." Sick from birth, IТd been born with a form of
pernicious anemia because of my motherТs drug addiction. She had died giving
birth to me, and my father blamed me for her death. He claimed she was the only
woman he had ever truly loved, and I had killed her.
Father--Martin Humphries--lived in Selene City on the Moon where he played his
chosen roles of interplanetary tycoon; megabillionaire; hell-raising,
womanizing, ruthless corrupt giant of industry; founder and head of Humphries
Space Systems, Inc.
My older brother, Alex, was the apple of FatherТs eye. But three years ago Alex
was killed on the first human mission to Venus. His ship entered the clouds that
totally cover our sister planet, but never came out again.
"It shouldТve been you, Runt!" Father howled when we got the news. "It shouldТve
been you who died, not Alex."
Father stewed in helpless fury for months, then suddenly announced that he would
give a ten-billion-dollar prize to whoever returned AlexТs remains to him.
Ten billion dollars! I would have thought that half the world would leap at the
chance to claim the prize. But then I realized that no one in his right mind
would dare to try.
As beautiful as Venus appears in our skies, the planet itself is the most
hellish place in the solar system. The ground is hot enough to melt aluminum.
The air pressure is so high it has crushed spacecraft landers as if they were
flimsy cardboard cartons. The sky is perpetually covered from pole to pole with
clouds of sulfuric acid. The atmosphere is a choking mixture of carbon dioxide
and sulfurous gases.
But Martin Humphries wanted his sonТs remains returned to him. So he offered his