"Geoffrey Landis - Ecopoiesis" - читать интересную книгу автора (Landis Geoffrey A)

it on uneven ground. It was a small dwelling for three people, but would be
adequate for our stay.
"Man, I don't envy y'all," he said. He delicately pinched two fingers over his
nose. "No surprise nobody comes here." He shook his head. "Anything else y'all
need?"
"How about the rover?" Leah asked.
"It's still in transit from the Moon; won't arrive for a few more days. When it
gets here, I'll send it right down."
#
Tally was first one inside the habitat, of course. Even though it had just come
down from space, like a cat, she had to sniff it out herself. After five minutes
she waved us in.
The interior of the habitat was brand new, the fixtures molded to the interior.
Across from the airlock atrium was the air regeneration equipment, with three
spherical pressure tanks painted blue to indicate oxygen, and three
green-painted tanks of nitrogen to provide make-up gas. To the left was a
combined conference room and kitchen area, and behind that the sleeping cubbies.

"Only two cubbies," Tally said, "and a mite cozy ones at that. Guess we girls
bunk down in one; give you the other all to yourself, Tinkerman."
I couldn't breathe for a moment. Somehow I managed to sneak a quick glance up.
Tally wasn't looking at me. She hadn't yet realized that the silence was
extending a bit too long. Leah glanced across at me. Her expression was neutral,
curious, perhaps, as to what I would do. I couldn't read her intention. I never
could.
In a very small voice, I said, "I volunteer to share a bunk with Leah."
Tally looked up sharply. Leah gazed back at her, her expression unreadable. But
she didn't voice an objection.
"Huh," said Tally. I don't think I'd ever seen Tally at a loss for words. "Well.
Guess I get a cubby to myself." She paused, and then added, almost to herself,
"lucky me."
#
Terraformed Mars had an atmosphere half as thick as Earth's. That was enough
pressure for a human to survive, but with no oxygen to breathe. With rebreathers
to recirculate exhaust carbon dioxide back into breathable oxygen, we could
survive outside comfortably without a vacuum suit. For that matter, you could
survive outside stark naked, as long as you had your rebreather, and didn't mind
the cold.
Outside again, this time with boots and coveralls to keep the worst of the
stinking dirt out of our habitat, we walked in silence across the rock-littered
landscape the hundred meters to the place that the earlier habitat had been.
Ragged edges of aluminum stuck out from the platform like ribs. Pieces of the
habitat had been scattered across the plain by the wind, a fan-tail of shining
metal and shards of composite sheeting visible against the brown all the way to
the horizon.
There were two bodies, one within the remains of the exploded habitat, one out
on the plain. Not much was left of them. The bodies were barely more than piles
of dirt with a rib-cage and part of a pelvis protruding, even the bones covered
with the purple-brown of the Martian microbiota. I was glad for the filtering
effect of the rebreather. I made videos of the bodies in position while Leah