"Robert A. Heinlein - Farmer In The Sky" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

тАЬFifty-five, sixty million.тАЭ

тАЬDid you know that the first four colonies here starved to death? 'S truthl How is it that fifty-odd million
can live here and not starve? Barring short rations, of course.тАЭ

He answered it himself. тАЬWe've got four atomic power plants along the coast just to turn sea water into
fresh water. We use every drop of the Colorado River and every foot of snow that falls on the Sierras.
And we use a million other gadgets. If those gadgets went badтАФsay a really big earthquake knocked out
all four atomic plantsтАФthe country would go back to desert. I doubt if we could evacuate that many
people before most of them died from thirst. Yet I don't think Mr. Miller is lying awake nights worrying
about it. He regards Southern California as a good 'natural' environment.

тАЬDepend on it, Bill. Wherever Man has mass and energy to work with and enough savvy to know how
to manipulate them, he can create any environment he needs.тАЭ

I didn't see much of Duck after that. About then we got our preliminary notices to take tests for eligibility
for the Ganymede colony and that had us pretty busy. Besides, Duck seemed differentтАФor maybe it was
me. I had the trip on my mind and he didn't want to talk about it. Or if he did, he'd make some crack that
rubbed me the wrong way.

Dad wouldn't let me quit school while it was still uncertain as to whether or not we would qualify, but I
was out a lot, taking tests. There was the usual physical examination, of course, with some added
wrinkles. A g test, for exampleтАФI could take up to eight gravities before I blacked out, the test showed.
And a test for low-pressure tolerance and hemorrhagingтАФthey didn't want people who ran to red noses
and varicose veins. There were lots more.

But we passed them. Then came the psycho tests which were a lot worse because you never knew what
was expected of you and half the time you didn't even know you were being tested. It started off with
hypno-analysis, which really puts a fellow at a disadvantage. How do you know what you've blabbed
while they've got you asleep?

Once I sat around endlessly waiting for a psychiatrist to get around to seeing me. There were a couple of
clerks there; when I came in one of them dug my medical and psycho record out of file and laid it on a
desk. Then the other one, a red-headed guy with a permanent sneer, said, тАЬOkay, Shorty, sit down on
that bench and wait.тАЭ

After quite a while the redhead picked up my folder and started to read it. Presently he snickered and
turned to the other clerk and said, тАЬHey, NedтАФget a load of this!тАЭ

The other one read what he was pointing to and seemed to think it was funny, too. I could see they were
watching me and I pretended not to pay any attention.

The second clerk went back to his desk, but presently the redhead went over to him, carrying my folder,
and read aloud to him, but in such a low voice that I couldn't catch many of the words. What I did catch
made me squirm.

When he had finished the redhead looked right at me and laughed. I stood up and said, тАЬWhat's so
funny?тАЭ

He said, тАЬNone of your business, Shorty. Sit down.тАЭ