"Horace Gold - Inside Man & Other Science Fiction Stories" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gold Horace)

bloody big slice, all right."
It was. The raw cut was as deep and wide as a sea, and the undiffused sunlight cast
a space-black shadow that made it seem even deeper and more naked among the
jagged asteroidal peaks.
"There's no doubt about it," Dowd added. "Palomar will spot that next time they
look this way, тАУ if a liner from one of the outer planets doesn't beat them to it!"
"Wait a minute," said Brodsky, thoughtfully. "There aren't any liners this time of year
тАУ none of the big planets are in opposition."
"Well?"
"And Palomar isn't going to bother with us till it has to. Listen," Brodsky went on,
growing excited, "what if we get that piece and stick it back?"
Dowd stared. "Do what?"
"You heard me," Brodsky insisted. "Why not?"
Dowd looked at him in astonishment. He began to laugh тАУ until he realized that
Brodsky was serious, and then he got annoyed. "That's crazy. We're miners,
Brodsky. We dig out; we don't put back."
Manson interrupted: "No, listen to him. Why shouldn't we?"
Dowd rubbed his square jaw, squinting down at the asteroid. "Well тАУ I don't know,
maybe it's an idea. Certainly we couldn't be any worse offтАУ"
"Let's try it," Brodsky urged eagerly. "What can we lose?" It was a very good
question and they all knew the answer.
"All by ourselves," Dowd mused. "No engineer to tell us what to do; no experience
in this sort of thing. Well, you're right, Brodsky. We don't have any choice, do we?"
What had happened to Ceres was this: A wedge of rock had flown off into space,
like an axehead hurled off the handle; it was getting farther away every second, and it
had picked up a fair amount of spin. Moreover, the remaining eighteen-nineteenths of
Ceres had acquired, by natural law, an equal and opposite thrust, seriously
disturbing its own orbit.
The ore freighter department head checked in. "Yeah, we've got the ships," he said.
"We've got eight that we can use for towing, which is enough. We can kill the spin,
sure. Don't worry about that. We'll get the chunk back to Ceres, right over the
cavity. Then it's up to the ground crews to take over. Of course," he added, "we'll
need an engineer to check our acceleration and bearings and all that, you know. Say,
when is the new engineer going toтАУ"
"Thanks," Dowd said bitterly. "Thanks a lot. Just stand by. I'll let you know."
The loading section foreman was less confident, but he grudgingly agreed that the
problem of getting the chunk back down in place wasn't impossible. He dragged
Dowd to his drafting office and showed him the plans his section had made. They all
gathered around his desk, arguing over a diagram.
"See," the foreman said, "I guess we could winch it down, like. From the bottom
and sides, you understand? It might mean losing a few winches underneath, but I
guess it's cheaper than losing the franchise."
"Hold on," Dowd said sharply. "You guess you can winch it down? It might mean
losing a couple of winches?"
"Well, what do you expect me to say?' the foreman demanded righteously. "I'm no
engineer."
"Damn it," exploded Dowd, "You've been doing this kind of work for twenty years!
All Eggleston would have done is check over your own diagram. Why can't you do
that?"
The foreman said stubbornly: "Stress factors, things like that тАУ what do I know