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

some significance in that.тАЭ

Now Bhatterji frowned. тАЬI donтАЩt think it matters,тАЭ he said slowly.

тАЬVery well.тАЭ This, briskly. тАЬThen there is no need to renumber them. Now, you are confident that you
can restoreboth engines, and tofull power?тАЭ

It was a request for reassurance, but Bhatterji took it as a token of doubt, which infuriated him still
further. тАЬOf course,тАЭ he said.

тАЬAnd withinnineteen days.тАЭ

The secondof course was not coarse at all, the words having been ground fine by BhatterjiтАЩs teeth.

тАЬBecause, at our current velocity,тАЭ Gorgas continued, тАЬand at full deboost, it will take this vessel two-
hundred and sixty-three megaklicks to slow down to the Jupiter datum.тАЭ

The engineer unsnapped and kicked his way to the door. The way he looked at things, this meeting had


file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/WreckofTheRiversofStars,The.html (36 of 424)5-9-2007 13:26:52
 TheWreckofTheRiverofStars

used up an hour and a half of those nineteen days.

тАЬI shall want daily progress reports on the status of the repairs,тАЭ Gorgas said to his back, but Bhatterji
ignored him.

When the engineer had gone, Gorgas returned to his personal quarters, adjacent to the day room. He
called up the waybills detailing their various cargo consignments and compared the promised delivery
dates against the revised ETA, given that the ship would be coasting for a week or more. He had bid low
on the contracts in an effort to win them from faster ships, but that left only a razor profit margin. Late
delivery would likely mean no repeat business with that client. Checking the penalty clauses, he
estimated the probable losses; then, as he frowned over the unpleasantness of the result, thought of five
things that might delay or impede BhatterjiтАЩs repairs.

He knew he ought to recalculate the losses for each of the thirty-one combinations of the five potential
delays, but тАЬworseтАЭ was probably a close-enough approximation for now. Instead, to relax and forget his
troubles, he called up the Alamein Campaign onto the wall screen at the point when the Libyan 1st and
2nd Mechanized Brigades had overrun the surprised Egyptian battalion at Sidi Omar. There was a strong
position on the Halfaya Pass around which he could build a counterattack, but the situation southward
toward Siwa was precarious.

The EngineerтАЩs Mate
Bhatterji resembled Grubb in the following manner. The cook could, from any random set of
ingredients, concoct a meal. It might not be cordon bleu, but it would serve. Similarly, Bhatterji could
concoct a repair from almost any random collection of parts and materials. It would not be OEM, but it
would work. This was a valuable talent to have, because theRiver carried nowhere near the number and
variety of parts that would be needed to restore two slagged Farnsworth cages to as-built condition.