"James P Hogan - Leapfrog UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hogan James P)

Fail had come to the northern hemisphere of Mars. At the north pole, the mean temperature had fallen to Ч 125░ CЧcold enough to freeze carbon dioxide out of the thin Martian atmosphere and begin forming the annual covering that would lay over the permanent cap of water-ice until spring. In the southern polar regions, where winter had ended, the carbon dioxide was evaporating. Along the edge of the retreating fields of dry ice, strong winds were starting to raise dust. During the short but hot southern summer, with Mars making its closest approach to the sun, the resulting storms could envelop the planet.
Edmund Halloran watched the surface details creep across the large wallscreen at one end of the mess area of Yellow Section, Deck B, of the interplanetary transfer vessel Mikhail Gorbachev, wheeling in orbit at the end of its six-month voyage from Earth to bring the third manned mission to the Red Planet. The other new arrivals sitting around him at the scratched and stained green-topped aluminum tablesЧwhere they had eaten their meals, played innumerable hands of cards, and talked, laughed, and exchanged reminiscences through the long voyage outЧwere also strangely quiet as they took in the view. Unlike the other views of Mars that they had studied and memorized, this was not being replayed from transmissions sent back from somewhere on the other side of millions of miles of space. This time it was really on the outside of the thin metal shell around them. Very soon, now, they would be leaving the snug cocoon with its reassuring routine and its company of familiar faces that they had come to know as home, to go down there. They had arrived.
The structure had lifted out from lunar orbit as a flotilla of three separate, identical craft, independently powered, each fabricated in
the general form of a T, but with the bar curved as part of the arc of a circle, rather than straight. On entering the unpowered free-fall phase that would endure for most of the voyage, the three ships had maneuvered together and joined at their bases to become the equispaced spokes of a rotating Y, creating comfortable living conditions in the three inhabited zones at the extremities. The triplicated design meant that in the event of a major failure in any of the modules, everybody could get home again in the remaining twoЧ~or at a push, with a lot of overcrowding and at the cost of jettisoning everything not essential to survival, even in a remaining one. The sections accommodated a total of 600 people, which represented a huge expansion of the existing population of 230 accrued from the previous two missions. Some of the existing population had been distributed between a main base on Lunae Planum and a few outlying installations. The majority, however, were still up in MARSIANSKAYA MEZHDUN-ARODNAYA ORBITAL СNAYA STANTSIYA, or
УMars International Orbiting Station,Ф awaiting permanent accommodation on the surface. In the Russian Cyrillic alphabet this was shortened to MAPCMOC, yielding the satisfyingly descriptive transliteration MARSMOS in English, which was accepted as the standard international language.
The region coming into view now was an area roughly twenty degrees north of the equator. Halloran recognized the heavily cratered area of Lunae Planum and the irregular escarpment at its eastern edge, bounding the smoother volcanic plain of Chryse Planitia. Although he knew where to look, he could see no indication of the main base down there. He picked out the channels emerging from the escarpment, where volcanic heating had melted some of the underground ice that had existed in an earlier age, causing torrential floods to pour out across the expanse of Chryse, which lay about a kilometer lower.
An announcement from the overhead speakers broke his mood of reverie. УAttention please. The shuttle to MARSMOS is now ready for boarding. Arrivals holding disembarkation cards ninety-three through one hundred twenty should proceed through to the docking area. Ninety-three through one hundred twenty, to the docking port now.,,
Halloran rose and picked up his briefcase and a bag containing other items that he wanted to keep with him until the personal baggage caught up with them later. As he shuffled forward to join the flow of people converging toward the door, a voice spoke close behind him. УIt looks as if weТre on the same trip across, Ed.Ф He looked
around. Ibrahim and Anna, a young Egyptian couple, were next in line.
УI guess so,Ф Halloran grunted. Ibrahim was an electronics technician, his wife a plant geneticist. They were both impatient to begin their new lives. Why two young people like these should be so eager and excited about coming to a four-thousand-mile ball of frozen deserts, Halloran couldnТt imagine. Or maybe he couldnТt remember.
УWeТll be going straight down from the station.Ф Ibrahim gestured toward Anna; she smiled a little shyly. УThe doctors want her to adapt to surface conditions as soon as possible.Ф
AnnaТs pregnancy had been confirmed early in the voyage. Although the baby wouldnТt be the first to be born on Mars, it would be one of a very select few. The knowledge added considerably to IbrahimТs already exuberant pride of first fatherhood.
УIt may be a while before I see you again, then, eh?Ф Halloran said. УBut I wouldnТt worry about not bumping into each other again. ItТs not as if there are that many places to get lost in down there yet.Ф
УI hope it wonТt be too long,Ф Ibrahim said. УIt was good getting to know you. I enjoyed listening to your stories. Good luck with your job here.Ф
УYou too. And take good care of Anna there, dТyou hear.Ф
They moved out through the mess doorway, into a gray-walled corridor of doors separated by stretches of metal ribbing. Byacheslav, one of the Russian construction engineers, moved over to walk beside Halloran as they came to the stairway leading up to the next deck, where the antechamber to the docking port was located. He was one of the relatively few older members of the groupЧaround HalloranТs age.
УWell, Ed . . . it would be two years at least before you saw Earth again, even if you changed your mind today.Ф
УI wasnТt planning on changing my mind.Ф
УItТs a big slice out of whatТs left of life when you get to our end of it. No second thoughts?Ф
УOh, things get easier once youТre over the hump. What happens when you get over the top of any hill and start going down the other side? You pick up speed, right? The tough partТs over. People just look at it the wrong way.Ф
Byacheslav smiled. УNever thought about it that way. Maybe youТre right.Ф
УHow about you?Ф
УMe? IТm going to be too busy to worry much about things like that. WeТre scheduled to begin excavating the steel plant within a
month. Oh, and there was something else. . . .У Byacheslav reached inside his jacket, took a billfold from the inside pocket, and peeled out Unodollar tens and ones. УThatТs to settle our poker accountЧbefore I blow it all in the mess bar down at Mainbase.Ф
Halloran took the money and stuffed it in his hip pocket. УThanks. You know, By, there was a time when I wouldnТt have trusted a
Russian as far as I could throw one of your earthmovers. It came with the trade.Ф
УWell, youТre in a different business now.Ф
УI guess we all are.Ф
They entered the antechamber, with its suiting-up room and two EVA airlocks on one side, and passed through the open doors of the docking port into the body of the shuttle. To align with the direction of the Mikhail GorbachevТs simulated gravity, the shuttle had docked with its roof entry-hatch mating to the port, which meant they had to enter down a ladder into the compartment forward of the passenger cabin. The seats were small and cramped, and Halloran and Byacheslay wedged themselves in about halfway to the back, next to a young Indonesian who was keeping up a Continuous chatter with someone in the row behind.
УDo you know where youТre going yet, Ed?Ф Byacheslav asked as they buckled themselves in.
УProbably a couple of weeks more up in orbit, until the new admin facility is ready down below,Ф Halloran replied. УThe director IТll be working for from MCM is supposed to be meeting me at MARSMOS. I should find out for sure then. I guess it depends on you construction people.Ф
УDonТt worry. We wonТt leave you stuck up here. . . .У Byacheslav looked at Halloran and raised his eyebrows. УSo, one of the directors is meeting you personally, eh? And will they have a red Carpet? If thatТs the kind of reception an administrator gets, I think IТm starting to worry already. I can see how the whole place will end up being run. That was what I came all this distance to get away from. Hmm
maybe IТve changed my mind. Perhaps we will leave you up here.Ф
HalloranТs rugged, pink-hued face creased into a grin. УI wouldnТt get too carried away if I were you. HeТs based up at MARSMOS most of the time, anyway. IТm just here to take care of resource-allocation schedules. Nothing special. They used to call it being a clerk.Ф
УNow I think youТre being too modest. ThereТs a lot more to it than scratching in ledgers with pens these days. You have to know corn-
puter systems. And in a situation like this, the function is crucial. You canТt tell me youТre not good.Ф
УDonТt believe a word of it. ItТs just Uncle SamТs way of retiring off old spy chiefs in a world that doesnТt need so many spies anymore.Ф
Halloran sat back and gazed around the cabin. All of the passengers were aboard and seated, and the crew were securing the doors. The metaphoric umbilical back to Earth was about to be broken. It had been over thirty years ago when he joined the Agency. Who would have thought, then, that two months after turning fifty-five, heТd have found himself at a place like this, starting with a new outfit all over again?
And of all outfits to have ended up with, one with a name like Moscow-Chase-Manhattan Investments, Inc., which controlled a development consortium headed by the Aeroflot Corporation, the Volga-Hilton Hotels group, and Nippon Trans-Pacific Enterprises. Similar combinations of interests had opened up the Moon to the point where its materials-processing and manufacturing industries were mushrooming, with regular transportation links in operation and constantly being expanded, and tourism was starting to catch on~ If the U.S. space effort hadnТt fallen apart in the seventies and eighties, America could have had all of it, decades ahead of the Soviets. As it was, America was lucky to have come out of it, along with Europe and some of the other more developed nations, as junior partners. The Second Russian Revolution, they called it. Back to capitalism. Many people thought it was better that way.
In the case of Mars, of course, the big obstacle to its similar development was the planetТs greater distance from Earth, with correspondingly longer flight times. But that problem would go awayЧ and usher in a new era of manned exploration of the outer Solar SystemЧwhen the race to develop a dependable, high-performance, pulsed nuclear propulsion system was won, which would bring the typical Mars round-trip down to somewhere around ten days. Although some unforeseen difficulties had been encountered, which had delayed development of such a drive well beyond the dates optimistically predicted in years gone by, the various groups working feverishly around the world were generally agreed that the goal was now in sight. That was the bonanza that MCM was betting on. Thirty years ago, Halloran would have declared flatly that such a coordination of Soviet and Western interests under a private initiative was impossible. Now he was part of it. Or about to be. . .
He found himself wondering again if the Vusilov who would be meeting him could be the same Vusilov from bygone years. Possibly
the KGB had its own retirement problems, too. But in any case, after all the months of wondering, it would be only a matter of minutes now before he found out.
The shuttle nudged itself away from the docking port, and Halloran experienced a strange series of sensations as it fell away from the Mikbail Gorbachev, shedding weight as it decoupled from the shipТs rotational frame, and then accelerated into a curving trajectory that would carry it across to the MARSMOS satellite.
УMARSMOS has increased tenfold in size in the last six months,Ф Byacheslav commented. УYouТll probably have more places to discover there in the next couple of weeks than IТll have down on the surface.Ф
УThereТll need to be, with all these people showing up,Ф Halloran said.
Even before the arrival of the two previous manned missions, a series of unmanned flights had left all kinds of hardware parked in orbit around Mars. In a frenzy of activity to prepare for the arrival of the third mission, the construction teams from the first two had expanded the initial station into a bewildering Rube-Goldberg creation of spheres, cylinders, boxes, and domes, bristling with antennas, laser tubes, and microwave dishes, all tied together by a floating web of latticeworks and tethering cables. And the next ship from Earth, with another six hundred people, was only two months behind.
There was a brief period of free-fall, and then more disorienting feelings of unbalance came and went as the shuttle reversed and decelerated to dock at MARSMOS. When Halloran unfastened his restraining straps, he found himself weightless, which meant that they were at the nonrotating section of the structure. Using handrails and guidelines, the newcomers steered themselves out through an aft sidedoor into an arrivals area where agents were waiting to give directions and answer questions.
After receiving an information package on getting around in MARSMOS, Halloran called Moscow-Chase-ManhattanТs number and asked for Mr. Vusiloy.
УDa?Ф
УMr. Vusilov?Ф