"Edward M. Lerner - Part III of IV - A New Order of Things" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lerner Edward M)

three watches have passed. Before the remotest chance of an interface mismatch and a cataclysmic
explosion, we must send word to the Unity. They must be told the mission was hijacked; it did not fail.

The crew-kindred's only advantage was the secret reactivation of T'bck Ra. They could spring that
surprise only once. Should they use their one chance to radio the Double Suns or the Unity's nearby
agent?

Hope dies hard, she realized. Gwu could not imagine how help could arise, but at least the theoretical
possibility existed that the Unity's agent on Earth could accomplish something before Harmony vanished
once more into interstellar space. Their attempt to communicate would be directed at the main
InterstellarNet receiver on Earth--and through it, to T'bck Fwa.

What course of action the AI could possibly undertake beyond relaying their message was beyond her
imagining.
****
Martian science classes boasted that Olympus Mons was the largest volcano in the solar system. It
towered to three times the height of Mount Everest. Its footprint was the size of the Hawaiian Islands.

Long dormant, it was far from the most impressive volcano.

Art's eyes were glued to the apocalyptic sight before him. Vast pools of hot, black lava mottled Io's
ocher surface. Geysers and volcanoes spewed sulfurous lava far into space. Rings of fresh red and
yellow sulfur encircled calderas a hundred kilometers across. The scene was all the more fearsome for its
violent transience: Cavernous faults and tall mountains formed and vanished here in a geological eye blink,
as the surface flexed endlessly in the tidal tug of war between mighty Jupiter to one side, and nearby
Europa and Ganymede to the other.

As the hellish world swelled in the main screen, Art just barely found his tongue. "Wow."

"Glad you came, Art?" Rachel Shapiro, the scoopship's pilot, wore a condescending smile that said:
tourist.

"Absolutely!" And not just because I was getting cabin fever on Callisto. "What a rush!"

"Me, too." Despite the endorsement, Helmut seemed quite blas├Г┬й, and more relaxed than Art had seen
him in their brief acquaintance. That was the thing about new friends--you did not entirely get them at
first. The spacer had doubtlessly seen more than Art, maybe even Io before. In fact, Helmut was so
bored-seeming Art didn't understand why he had come along.

A different friend's advice had gotten Art here. Clearly he did not yet understand her. After he had made
arrangements for two to tag along on a scoop run, Eva politely declined the second seat. Okay, he did
understand her. Her work was peaking even while his was in a lull. Didn't she need a break, too? He
couldn't imagine her taking time off once the working interstellar drive was in her hands.

Maybe thrill rides weren't Eva's idea of a first date. Maybe he was reading her signals wrong. Wouldn't
be the first time.

Too bad, either way. She was missing a hell of a show.

Io was only coincidentally a scenic stopover. Their course bent around the tortured moon in a tight