"James P. Hogan - Giants 2 - The Gentle Giants of Ganymede" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hogan James P)

"Leyel," Chariso began without preamble. "Can you get down here right
away. We've got trouble -- real trouble." His tone of voice said the rest.
Anything that could arouse Chariso to such a state had to be bad.
"I'm on my way," he said, already moving toward the door.
Five minutes later Torres arrived in the lab and was greeted by the
physicist, who by this time was looking more worried than ever. Chariso led
him to a monitor before a bank of electronic equipment where Galdern Brenzor,
another of the scientists, was staring grim-faced at the curves and data
analyses on the computer output screens. Brenzor looked up as they approached
and nodded gravely.
"Strong emission lines in the photosphere," he said. "Absorption lines
are shifting rapidly toward the violet. There's no doubt about it; a major
instability is breaking out in the core and it's running away."
Torres looked over at Chariso.
"Iscaris is going nova," Chariso explained. "Something's gone wrong with
the project and the whole star's started to blow up. The photosphere is
exploding out into space and preliminary calculations indicate we'll be
engulfed here in less than twenty hours. We have to evacuate."
Tones stared at him in stunned disbelief. "That's impossible."
The scientist spread his arms wide. "Maybe so, but it's fact. Later we
can take as long as you like to figure out where we went wrong, but right now
we've got to get out of here...fast!"
Tones stared at the two grim faces while his mind instinctively tried to
reject what it was being told. He gazed past them at another large wall screen
that was presenting a view being transmitted from ten million miles away in
space. He was looking at one of the three enormous G-beam projectors,
cylinders two miles long and a third of a mile across, that had been built in
stellar orbit thirty million miles from Iscaris with their axes precisely
aligned on the center of the star. Behind the silhouette of the projector
Iscaris's blazing globe was still normal in appearance, but even as he looked
he imagined that he could see its disk swelling almost imperceptibly but
menacingly outward.
For a moment his mind was swamped by emotions -- the enormity of the
task that suddenly confronted them, the hopelessness of having to think
rationally under impossible time pressures, the futility of two years of
wasted efforts. And then, as quickly as it had come, the feeling evaporated
and the commander in him reasserted itself.
"ZORAC," he called in a slightly raised voice.
"Commander?" The same voice that had spoken in his study answered.
"Contact Garuth on the Shapieron at once. Inform him that a matter of
the gravest urgency has arisen and that it is imperative for all commanding
officers of the expedition to confer immediately. I request that he put out an
emergency call to summon them to link in fifteen minutes from now. Also, sound
a general alert throughout the base and have all personnel stand by to await
further instructions. I'll link in to the conference from the multiconsole in
Room 14 of the Main Observatory Dome. That's all."

Just over a quarter of an hour later Tones and the two scientists were
facing an array of wall screens that showed the other participants in the
conference. Garuth, commander-in-chief of the expedition, sat flanked by two