"GRAF, L. A - STAR TREK ROUGH TRAILS" - читать интересную книгу автора (Graf L A)

hung over the island subcontinent of Llano Verde during its long, dry
winter was known to attenuate every known kind of subspace and
electromagnetic transmission. But the dust had created a dense surface
layer in the planet's stratified troposphere, permanently trapped
beneath cleaner and colder air above it. The knife-sharp boundary
between those air masses should have been able to amplify and reflect
back any signal that managed to reach it very computer model and
Starfleet expert Uhura had consulted agreed on that. So while Janice
Rand worked on augmenting the city's short-range communications using
olivium's natural crystal resonance, Uhura had designed a long-distance
communications system that relied simply on punching a strong signal up
to the top of the dust layer and letting nature take care of the rest.
All she had to do-in theory-was calibrate the system by noting which
electromagnetic frequencies created the best reflections at different
points on the subcontinent. With computers varying her output signal
nanosecond by nanosecond as she spoke, and a special receiver carried
in the experimental shuttle Scotty had designed and Sulu was
test-flying around Llano Verde, the whole project should have taken
about two days to complete.

In theory.

"Uhura to Sulu. Come in, Sulu."

"commander Sulu's flight plan said he was going all the way to Mudlump
today, down on the south coast," a familiar voice said from right
behind her. "Could he really answer you from there even if he heard
you?"

Uhura sighed and turned to face the stoop-shouldered man behind her.
His green-hazel eyes were puffy, his thinning reddish hair badly needed
a trim, and his colony unifoni, was rumpled and coffee-stained. He
looked exactly like what he was: not a rugged settler, but one of Belle
Terre's too few and too overworked technical experts, hired on
long-term contracts to help the colony through its initial growing
pains. Despite her own tribulations, Uhura managed to summon up a
sympathetic smile. No one could fault the colony's initial strategic
plan for not taking a planetary catastrophe like the Burn into account,
but it didn't make life easier for continental government employees
like Chief Technical Officer Neil Barrels.

"The transmitter I sent with him is automatically programed to reply on
whatever frequency it just received " She accepted the steaming mug he
held out for her, grateful for the bracing combination of Belle Terre
spices and artificial caffeine concentrate. After several weeks of
conferring over technical specifications and borrowing circuit-testing
equipment, they'd fallen into the habit of sharing a cup of afternoon
tea before the last and dullest stretch of the day. Uhura privately
suspected that Barrels would have been even happier to spend his break
discussing his numerous technical problems with Montgomery Scott, but