"C. Sanford Lowe & G. David Nordley - Loki's Realm" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lowe C Sanford)

was awestruck. This was a real starship and I was going to ride on it.
The runabout set down on the inside of the small ring in a complicated
maneuver, which its AI handled flawlessly, leaving me with about a tenth of a gee of
spin gravity. I wondered if that maneuver could even be attempted manually.
Dock and seal were quickly announced, and the smart glasses guided me
down a long, sloping corridor that ran inside one of the choke ring supports to the
passageway in the main ring and something approaching lunar gravity. From there
they conducted me into the middle of Sphere One, a living roomlike common area
surrounded by doors to private quarters and a firemanтАЩs pole in the center leading to
decks above and below. I had barely begun to wonder which door was mine when
one to my left opened unbidden. An AI somewhere was responsible, of course.
The cabin was tiny; a fold-down bunk two meters long took up the entire
outboard side. A well-disguised lavatory sat to the right of the door at the foot of the
bed, and a small desk and chair sat to the left of the door at its head. I checked to
see if my personal stores had been stowed, and they hadтАФas part of the shield
mass. Included was a precious case of my native island whisky, Talisker. I pursed
my lips and set aside my thirst for the nonce.
тАЬHello, Dr. Macready. Rumor is IтАЩm in charge of this zoo.тАЭ
I turned. Outside my door was our expedition commander, George P.
Weaver, a tall man with close-cropped steel gray hair. By his biography, he was a
horseman, a Texan, with Ph.D.s in animal husbandry and systems management. He
still had vestiges of a Texas accent, but this was well smoothed toward an aerospace
standard English that sounded not too unlike the Canadian of the Toronto region. He
offered me the callused hand of a sincere physical hobbyist, with a correspondingly
firm grip.
тАЬGlad to meet you, sir,тАЭ I replied, wondering what heтАЩd think of my rather
unsmoothed Scots accent, тАЬand thereтАЩll be no need for the тАШdoctorтАЩ so far from the
classroom. ItтАЩs Bruce.тАЭ
He gave me a long look as if judging whether he was ready to be on a
first-name basis.
тАЬRight, Macready ... uh, Bruce ... Brad Adams arranged for you to have this
stateroom.тАЭ
тАЬAye.тАЭ
тАЬWill you be riding out the acceleration with us?тАЭ
Others had described that experience well enough for me. тАЬNo, IтАЩll be in cold
sleep unless something noteworthy happens. Project managementтАЩs arranged for me
to be woken up in that event.тАЭ
Weaver raised an eyebrow. тАЬProject management will soon be a long, long
way away. WeтАЩll have ninety-six scientists with us who want to study the Epsilon
Eridani system in detail. TheyтАЩre in cold storage and will stay there until weтАЩre ready
for them.тАЭ
тАЬI hope my arrangement meets with your approval, then,тАЭ I added.
His face remained impassive.
тАЬAh, once IтАЩve sorted myself, I hoped to ask Dr. Davra about the finer points
of what the robotic minions at Epsilon Eridani can do on their own and what might
require our direction.тАЭ Davra, a comely lass, was the chief roboticist.
He looked at me a bit, then nodded as if making a judgment. тАЬI see youтАЩve
homed in on the central issue already. The short answer is, their programming canтАЩt
anticipate everything. ThatтАЩs why Doc Zhau sent us.тАЭ
Dr. Zhau and Weaver had a history that went back several decades, and when