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

Fransziska Wong, M.D., the most recently-added component of that gallimaufry, seemed made all of
sticks and twine, as if a good, hard shaking would be more g-force than her ligaments could withstand.
Her forearms and lower legs were long and spindly, her breasts meager. Such was the curse of the
spaceborn: That the flesh stretched out to extend the limbs was stolen from elsewhere in the body. At
times, when she contemplated the images of beauty broadcast from Earth or Mars, this disturbed her.


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 TheWreckofTheRiverofStars


Wong had taken her medical degree from Leo University in Goddard City, Low Earth Orbit, specializing
(by necessity) in the maladies of microgravity. She had spent two years in GoddardтАЩs clinic, another two
in High Nairobi, dreaming of adventure and the sight of far, exotic places. ThenFS Ned DuBois had
called into port shy a shipтАЩs doctor and she had seized the opportunity.

But the inside of a ship looked remarkably like the inside of an orbital habitat and, as she soon found,
the insides of the warrens under Luna and Mars. Tight little rooms and tight little corridors; recycled air
and recycled water and, after a time, recycled thoughts. Little by little over the years, she had given up
the search for far exotic places, though she never did quite give up the hope that they existed.

The captainтАЩs body upbraided her. She had failed to save him; failed even to diagnose him. Carefully,
she straightened the limbs, closed the eyes, covered the face. The dear man looked so fragile in death:
smaller somehow, as if something inside were missing. Wherever else fancy might suppose he had gone,
Evan Hand had departedThe River of Stars .

First officer Gorgas, hunched so intently over his тАЩputer, had barely acknowledged her entrance, and
Wong supposed him deeply involved in some administrative task required by the captainтАЩs death. She
recorded the time in the shipтАЩs medical log and entered her confirmation. Legally, at that moment, the
captain died; and it struck her that in some arcane, bureaucratic fashion she had just killed him.

тАЬI suppose,тАЭ she said as she tucked the sheets around the body to prevent it from drifting off while she
fetched a body bag from stores, тАЬthat the ship will not be run in so тАШEvan Hand-edтАЩ a fashion now.тАЭ

The first officer looked up from his тАЩputer. тАЬWhatтАЩs that?тАЭ he said. тАЬWhatтАЩs that? YouтАЩre making a joke?
With our captain only now passed away, youтАЩd make a mockery of his name?тАЭ

Wong bowed her head at the rebuke. The pun had been one of EvanтАЩs favorite lines. He had often used it
himself, and she had repeated it as a way of maintaining something of his antic humor. She hadnтАЩt meant
it as mockery; but Gorgas, who had flown with the captain for many years must be taking the death most
cruel hard, keeping it inside, as men so often did, yet needing, nevertheless, some word of kindness.
тАЬThe ship will miss him,тАЭ she said.

Certainly, she did. Evan had been lighthearted, always with a smile, always ready with a joke or a
courtesy. The first officer struck her as serious, but with all the vices and none of the virtues that
seriousness implied. Yet, she had been aboardThe River only a short time and GorgasтАЩs solemn
demeanor, his snappishness, might be only a mask for the grief he felt at the passing of his old friend.