"Michael Flynn - Wreck of The Rivers of Stars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Flynn Michael)

himself, not trusting the suitтАЩs AI to judge the complex topography below. If he miscalculated he would
fly into the Void. But that was as it should be. A manтАЩs fate ought to be in a manтАЩs own two hands.
Enver Koch had made a fatal error, but he had died a man.

That one as terrified of the Void as Ramakrishnan Bhatterji would work in space affronted reason; but
reason wasnтАЩt in it. Some men find their fears more addicting than their loves and so come to love their
fears. They take pride in defying them. Bhatterji could have swum through that reef, or even gone back
inside the ship and across the quadrant, but he was more afraid of showing his fear than he was of the
fear itself. History has named such men heroes, and at other times fools, and called their behavior brave
or self-destructive as intellectual fashion decreed; but whatever she called them, history has always
taken note. People write songs about the likes of Ram Bhatterji and whether the song is ballad or dirge
or satire matters less than that it is sung at all.

(Men like Gorgas inspire no music: a gray man with a gray mind; aloof and abrupt because he lived
much inside his head; single-minded and unyielding when once he had grasped the pattern of events; but
quick to see those patterns, as well. Such men do not inspire. At best, they merely convince.)

Coming at last to Number Two, Bhatterji saw immediately that its anode had also melted. It was a
curious thing to be so astonished at something so expected. тАЬBoth engines have slagged,тАЭ he announced.
Something struck his outstretched arm and, turning, he saw the loose ends of the Hyne cables writhing
Medusa-like in the airless void.

Bhatterji peered closer at the torn cables just as two bare ends chanced to close with each other and a
white spark jumped the gap. He had not actually grasped hold of anything and so was not grounded and
the charge dissipated harmlessly; but his mind by reflex worked out the voltages. Miko, who was
monitoring BhatterjiтАЩs life support from within the ship, saw how the heartbeat spiked.

тАЬMiko,тАЭ the engineerтАЩs voice said ever-so-calmly over the link, тАЬIтАЩve found the source of that transient
that concerned you. Please shut down all subsystem power to the Number Two pylon.тАЭ

Miko threw the switches and locked them out, one by one. The engineer was terrified of outside work.
He tried to keep it secret, but Miko could tell. A cold start would require recalibration of the flicker.
Someone must physically adjust the focusing rings after each test burst. It was dangerous work,
normally done in the Yards. Get the rhythm wrongтАФmiss a beatтАФand a nanopulse of fusion would be
more than flesh and bone could bear. The situation must be serious indeed if Ram was willing to accept
that risk while under way and with a high velocity.

AboardThe River only since Amalthea Harbor, Miko still found pleasure in contemplating duty, in
beinguseful to a ship that had provided refuge from an intolerable life, and so had studied the manuals
with great diligence, memorizing assembly and disassembly procedures, creating mental pictures from
the views and sections. тАЬI could do it.тАЭ The words escaped on a breath and Bhatterji, not quite making
them out, asked for a repeat. Miko flushed and said, тАЬNothing.тАЭ


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Or did something else move the engineer beside a reluctance to entrust great work to a green apprentice?