"Burstein, Michael A - Broken Symmetry" - читать интересную книгу автора (Burstein Michael A)

BROKEN SYMMETRY
by
Michael A. Burstein
Copyright й 1997 by Michael A. Burstein. All rights reserved.
First appearance in Analog, February 1997.


Prologue: Spin Down
No one saw the first four explosions. Only two people witnessed the fifth
explosion, and it killed one of them.
Jack Levinson and Daniel Strock, fellow math teachers at the local high school
in Waxahachie, Texas, always spent their Sunday afternoons bicycling along the
path of the old, abandoned Superconducting Supercollider main ring. Its sixty
mile circumference surrounded the town, a greater distance than either of the
two friends ever bicycled on any given day. Instead, they liked to drive to the
spot on the ring where they had last left off their biking, pedal for a few
miles, and then return to their car. In bits and pieces, they had made a habit
of completely finishing the path of the accelerator every few months. Not that
they could see the old collider ring, of course, since, like most particle
accelerators, it had been built underground. Nor did a track actually run above
the buried ring. They bicycled upon dry grass that looked the same everywhere
around, so that unless you knew the collider was beneath your feet, nothing in
the way the ground appeared would tell you otherwise.
On this particular October afternoon, shortly after starting their ride, they
stopped for a moment to relieve their thirst. They remained straddled on their
bicycles. Jack reached down for his canteen, and poured the cool water down his
parched throat. He offered it to Daniel, who shook his head. "I'm busy," he
said, checking his compass against a map.
"Come on," Jack said, "you'd better take a sip if you don't want to end up
dehydrated."
Daniel smiled. "Nah, I can take it."
"You say that each and every time, and last week I almost had to carry you back
to the car. Here." Jack thrust the canteen at his friend, who took a sip and
tossed it back.
Jack looked around. "Which way now?"
"Well," Daniel said, turning the map around and squinting into the sun, "I think
we go -- this way!"
As he spoke the last two words, he jumped his feet back onto the pedals and sped
away from Jack. Jack shook his fist, and almost lost his balance getting back
onto the bicycle. Daniel was already thirty feet ahead. Laughing, Jack shouted,
"Damn you! You always try to turn this into a race --"
A large explosion interrupted him, a loud boom accompanied by a blinding flash
of light. He hit the dirt instantly, his body remembering the air raid drills
from elementary school. Duck and cover, that's what they always said to do. In a
moment, the boom turned into the echo of a distant rumble, and Jack looked up.
The explosion had left a gaping hole in the ground, right where Daniel had been
pedaling. Smoke drifted lazily out of the hole. Daniel and his bike lay off to
the side, thrown by the force of the explosion. Jack jumped off his bike and ran
over to his friend.
"Daniel!" he screamed, and what he saw shocked him. Daniel's body was bruised