"David Brin - Senses Three and Six" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brin David)

that hit the nation in the late seventies... Big endeavors, pipelines, bombers, space
shuttles, went through design change after design change, all attributed to poor
planning.
And yet the engineers involved were the very same who had brought the Apollo
Program in ahead of schedule and under budget.
How could such incompetence appear out of nowhere? Bungled, rebuilt
nuclear power plants, reworked and retooled factories, new equipment wasted and
tossed away.
Nobody bothered to check what happened to the original parts... the "flawed"
equipment that had to be replaced... no one knew but a few in the highest places
that the leftovers were taken to a cavern in Tennessee. Pieces of experimental
windmills and redesigned submarines, prototype bombers and cancelled shuttles,
the bits all cleverly fitted together into... into great globes... into beauty and
eventually
Sure, Alan, look to space for salvation from economic woes.
The Project was responsible for most of the mysterious inflation that hit in the
late seventies... A great nation's wealth, thrown in secret down a rat hole.
Dream on...


Elise notices me and her words stumble to a stop. But she recovers quickly. She
grabs my arm as I sit down beside her.
"Why didn't you tell me Alan got accepted!" She tries to sound accusing but is
too excited to make it stick.
I shrug. The kid had only told me about his "good luck" this morning. Chuck had
offered perfunctory congratulations but had better things to do than spend all day
gushing over the young idiot's long-range suicide plan.
"Aw, come on, Lise." Alan grins. "It's only a preliminary acceptance. They're
going to put me through a wringer like boot camp and final exams put together.
Probably the only result will be three months lost from my research, and a permanent
empathy with my experimental rats!"
"Don't be silly!" Elise glances at me quickly and gives in to her natural instinct to
touch his sleeve in encouragement. "You'll make it all the way. Just think how proud
we'll all be to say we knew you when!"
Alan laughs. "I'll tell you what would help. What I really need is some coaching
from the Zen master here."
He jerks his thumb in my direction.
Elise takes a fraction of a second to check the expression on my face. To me it
feels stony, numb. I'm irked by this need of hers to constantly worry about my
reaction, even if she's been doing it less lately.
I've never abused her. So Chuck growls! So what! She can do or say anything
she wants, for crissake!
She laughs a bit nervously. "My bear, a Zen master? What do you mean, Alan?"
Alan grins. "I mean that one of the reasons I hang around this big grump is
because he's the closest thing to a real guru I've ever met." Alan looks at Elise.
"Have you ever watched him while he's fixing a bike?"
"Are you kidding? He has a Harley torn apart in the living room. I've tried and
tried--"
"No. I mean really watched him! Closely! He touches every piece and meditates
on it before he does anything at all to it. No part is in its place out of tempo. I used