"Clarke, Arthur C - Odissey Two" - читать интересную книгу автора (Clarke Arthur C)

It is realized that unforeseen circumstances may require a change of priorities, or even make it impossible to achieve some of these objectives. It must be clearly understood that the rendezvous with Spacecraft Discovery is for the express purpose of obtaining information about the artifact; this must take precedence over all other objectives, including attempts at salvage.



Crew

The crew of Spacecraft Alexei Leonov will consist of:

Captain Tatiana Orlova (Engineering-Propulsion)

Dr Vasili Orlov (Navigation-Astronomy)

Dr Maxim Brailovsky (Engineering-Structures)

Dr Alexander Kovalev (Engineering-Communications)

Dr Nikolai Ternovsky (Engineering-Control Systems)

Surgeon-Commander Katerina Rudenko (Medical-Life-Support)

Dr Irma Yakunina (Medical-Nutrition)

In addition, the US National Council on Astronautics will provide the following three experts:



Dr Heywood Floyd dropped the memorandum, and leaned back in his chair. It was all settled; the point of no return had been passed. Even if he wished to do so, there was no way to put back the clock.

He glanced across at Caroline, sitting with two-year-old Chris on the edge of the pool. The boy was more at home in the water than on land, and could stay submerged for periods that often terrified visitors. And though he could not yet speak much Human, he already seemed fluent in Dolphin.

One of Christopher's friends had just swum in from the Pacific and was presenting his back to be patted. You too are a wanderer, thought Floyd, in a vast and trackless ocean; but how small your tiny Pacific seems, against the immensity I am facing now!

Caroline became aware of his gaze, and rose to her feet. She looked at him sombrely, but without anger; all that had been burned out in the last few days. As she approached, she even managed a wistful smile.

'I've found that poem I was looking for,' she said. 'It starts like this:



What is a woman that you forsake her,

And the hearth-fire and the home acre,

To go with the old grey Widow-maker?'



'Sorry - I don't quite understand. Who is the Widow-maker?'

'Not who, what. The sea. The poem's a lament by a Viking woman. It was written by Rudyard Kipling, a hundred years ago.'