"Clarke, Arthur C - The Sands Of Mars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Clarke Arthur C)

if one waited long enoughЧthe reality had caught up with
the fiction. The same moment lay only ninety seconds in
his own future. Yes, it was funny, a beautiful case of po-
etic justice.

The pilot glanced at him, read his feelings, and grinned
cheerfully.

"Don't let your own stories scare you. Why, I once
took off standing up, just for a bet, though it was a damn
silly thing to do."

"I'm not scared," Gibson replied with unnecessary em-
phasis.

"Hmmm," said the pilot, condescending to glance at the

clock. The second-hand had one more circuit to go. "Then
I shouldn't hold on to the seat like that It's only beryl-
manganese; you might bend it."

Sheepishly, Gibson relaxed. He knew that he was build-
ing up synthetic responses to the situation, but they seemed
none the less real for all that.

"Of course," said the pilot, still at ease but now, Gibson
noticed, keeping his eyes fixed on the instrument panel,
"it wouldn't be very comfortable if it lasted more than a
few minutesЧah, there go the fuel pumps. Don't worry
when the vertical starts doing funny things, but let the
seat swing where it likes. Shut your eyes if that helps at
all. (Hear the igniter jets start then?) We take about ten
seconds to build up to full thrustЧthere's really nothing
to it, apart from the noise. You just have to put up with
that. I SAID, YOU JUST HAVE TO PUT UP WITH
THAT!"

But Martin Gibson was doing nothing of the sort. He
had already slipped gracefully into unconsciousness at an
acceleration that had not yet exceeded that of a high-speed
elevator.

He revived a few minutes and a thousand kilometres*
later, feeling quite ashamed of himself. A beam of sunlight
was shining full on his face, and he realised that the pro-
tective shutter on the outer hull must have slid aside. Al-
though brilliant, the light was not as intolerably fierce
as he would have expected; then he saw that only a frac-
tion of the full intensity was filtering through the deeply
tinted glass.