"Edward L. Ferman - Best From F&SF, 23rd Edition" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ferman Edward L)

possible." He glanced uneasily at Lang, still nodding, her eyes glassy as she saw her teammates die
before her eyes.
"I just want to point out that instead of an expedition, we are now a colony. Not in the usual sense of
planning to stay here forever, but all our planning will have to be geared to that fiction. What we're faced
with is not a simple matter of stretching supplies until rescue comes. Stopgap measures are not likely to
do us much good. The answers that will save us are the long-term ones, the sort of answers a colony
would be looking for. About two years from now we're going to have to be in a position to survive with
some sort of lifestyle that could support us forever. We'll have to fit into this environment where we can
and adapt it to us where we can. For that, we're better oft than most of the colonists of the past, at least
for the short term. We have a large supply of everything a colony needs: food, water, tools, raw
materials, energy, brains, and women. Without these things, no colony has much of a chance. All we lack
is a regular resupply from the home country, but a really good group of colonists can get along without
that. What do you say? Are you all with me?"
Something had caused Mary Lang's eyes to look up. It was a reflex by now, a survival reflex
conditioned by a lifetime of fighting her way to the top. It took root in her again and pulled her erect on
the bed, then to her feet. She fought off the effects of the drug and stood there, eyes bleary but aware.
"What makes you think that women are a natural resource, Craw-ford?" she said, slowly and
deliberately.
"Why, what I meant was that without the morale uplift provided by members of the opposite sex, a
colony will lack the push needed to make it."
"That's what you meant, all right. And you meant women, available to the real colonists as a reason to
live. I've heard it before. That's a male-oriented way to look at it, Crawford." She was regaining her
stature as they watched, seeming to grow until she dominated the group with the intangible power that
marks a leader. She took a deep breath and came fully awake for the first time that day.
"We'll stop that sort of thinking right now. I'm tile mission commander. I appreciate you taking over
while I was . . . how did you say it? Indisposed. But you should pay more attention to the social aspects
of our situation. If anyone is a commodity here, it's you and Ralston, by virtue of your scarcity. There will
be some thorny questions to resolve there, but for the meantime we will function as a unit, under my
command. We'll do all we can to minimize social competition among the women for the men. That's the
way it must be. Clear?"
She was answered by quiet assent and nods of the head. She did not acknowledge it but plowed
right on.
"I wondered from the start why you were along, Crawford." She was pacing slowly back and forth in
the crowded space. The others got out of her way almost without thinking, except for Ralston who still
huddled under his blanket. "A historian? Sure, it's a fine idea, but pretty impractical. I have to admit that
I've been thinking of you as a luxury, and about as useful as the nipples on a man's chest. But I was
wrong. All the NASA people were wrong. The Astronaut Corps fought like crazy to keep you off this
trip. Time enough for that on later flights. We were blinded by our loyalty to the test-pilot philosophy of
space flight. We wanted as few scientists as possible and as many astronauts as we could manage. We
don't like to think of ourselves as ferry-boat pilots. I think we demonstrated during Apollo that we could
handle science jobs as well as anyone. We saw you as a kind of insult, a slap in the face by the scientists
in Houston to show us how low our stock has fallen."
"If I might be able to-"
"Shut up. But we were wrong. I read in your resume that you were quite a student of survival. What's
your honest assessment of our chances?"
Crawford shrugged, uneasy at the question. He didn't know if it was the right time to even postulate
that they might fail.
"Tell me the truth."
"Pretty slim. Mostly the air problem. The people I've read about never sank so low that they had to
worry about where their next breath was coming from."