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

the bubble helmets gave us fine visibility from inside them, their protective
sunshield tinting made them look like mirrors from the outside. All I could see
in RodriguezТs helmet was the blank fishbowl reflection of my own helmet.
"CТmon, Mr. Humphries. Gimme your tether. IТll attach it to the trolley.
Otherwise youТll swing away."
I remembered the drill from the simulations we had gone through. I unclipped one
end of my safety tether from its hook at the waist of my suit and handed it
mutely to Rodriguez. He disappeared from my view. There was nothing beyond the
airlock hatch that I could see, nothing but a gaping, all-encompassing
emptiness.
"Step out now, come on," RodriguezТs voice coaxed in my earphones. "YouТre okay
now. Your tetherТs connected to the trolley and IТm right here."
His spacesuited form floated into view again, like a pale white ghost hovering
before me. Then I saw the others, a scattering of bodies floating in the void,
each connected to the trolley by thin tethers that seemed to be stretched to
their limit.
"ItТs really fun," MargueriteТs voice called.
We were not in zero gravity. The two spacecraft were still swinging around their
common center of gravity, still connected by the Buckyball cable. But there was
nothing out there! Nothing but an emptiness that stretched to the ends of the
universe.
Shaking inside, my heart thundering so loudly that I knew they could all hear it
over my suit radio, I grasped the edge of the outer hatchway in my gloved hands
and, closing my eyes, stepped off into infinity.
My stomach dropped away. I felt bile burning up into my throat. My mind raced.
He missed me! Rodriguez missed me and IТm falling away from the ship. IТll fall
into the Sun or go drifting out and away forever and ever.
Then something tugged at me. Hard. My eyes popped open and I saw that my tether
was as taut as a steel rod, holding me securely. But the trolley seemed to be
miles away. And I couldnТt see any of the others even when I twisted my head to
look for them.
"HeТs secured," RodriguezТs voice said in my earphones.
"Very well," Duchamp replied. "IТm coming out."
I was twisting around, literally at the end of my tether, trying to find the
rest of us.
Then the massive bulk of Venus slid into my view. The planet was huge! Its
tremendous mass curved gracefully, so bright that it was hard to look at it even
through the heavy tinting of my helmet. For a dizzying moment I felt as if its
enormous expanse was above me, over my head, and it was going to come down and
crush me like a ponderous boulder squashing some insignificant bug.
But only for a moment. The fear passed quickly and I gasped as I stared at the
overpowering awesome immensity of the planet. Tears sprang to my eyes, not from
its brightness, from its beauty.
I felt someone tugging at my shoulder. "Hey, you okay, boss?" Rodriguez asked.
"Wha . . . yes. Yes, IТm all right."
"DonТt freeze up on us now," the astronaut said. "WeТll be ready to move soonТs
Duchamp gets herself connected to the trolley."
I couldnТt take my eyes off Venus. She was a brilliant saffron-yellow expanse,
glowing like a thing alive. Goddess of beauty, sure enough. At first I thought
the cloud deck was as firm and unvarying as a sphere of solid gold. Then I saw