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

Loch Ness on the wall across from the bed, a sunny day in late October full of
autumn color.
Emma sighed. тАЬSo whatever errors I make, whatever consequences my
mistakes have, youтАЩll be there to record it for all eternity.тАЭ
They dinna send idiots out to the stars. тАЬNow, lass, IтАЩm a fair man. Besides,
for such inquisitions there would always be the official logs. My job as project
historian is to make what all happens comprehensible to the general reader. IтАЩll not
be passing negative judgments on people just because theyтАЩre people.тАЭ
She simply looked at my view of Loch Ness. тАЬYou mentioned some local
libation?тАЭ
I smiled, glad for the change of subject. тАЬI did indeed. Talisker, a single malt
Scots whisky.тАЭ I explained about aging, sherry cask wood, local grains and all, as I
poured us a finger each.
 She took a sip. тАЬBruce, I can detect very faint echoes of some of the qualities
you mentioned, but my overwhelming impression is more of ... of some kind of
mouthwash. And my mouth burns.тАЭ She gave me a kind of wry little smile. тАЬBut it
does make me warm.тАЭ
Her first reaction to Talisker, alas, was an all too frequent one for a novice to
Scots whisky. I put my hand on hers and sighed.
She made no move to remove it, but only shook her head. тАЬIтАЩm not sure
whatтАЩs gone wrong. Epsilon Eridani is a very young star system, and itтАЩs suffered
some recent pathology. The planetary orbits havenтАЩt settled down; theyтАЩre still
eccentric and migrating. So itтАЩs very hard to tell what happened, or when. A passing
star or rogue planet may have disturbed the system. Or the system may be disrupting
itself chaotically.тАЭ
тАЬDisrupting itself?тАЭ
She shrugged. тАЬOrbits evolve. Planets perturb each other. Eccentricities vary
in cycles. A system may clank along alone like that for millions or even billions of
years, then someday all the cycles match up the wrong way and two planets come
too close to each other and there is a brief gravitational embrace, one gets ejected
and the other moves inward in an eccentric orbit. Then they settle down, like Uranus,
Neptune, and Pluto in our system. But it takes billions of years. In this case itтАЩs Loki
swinging wildly in and out, flinging planetesimals out of the protoplanetary disk with
its gravity at both ends.тАЭ She drained her glass. тАЬThis stuff does grow on you.тАЭ
I poured another round.
She raised an eyebrow at me. тАЬMust remember IтАЩm on the record....
тАЬSomehow she had moved near to me, her arm lightly touching mine.
It burned where we touched, in a way I remembered from close dancing in the
days of my youth. I mulled over whether she might welcome an invitation to become
more intimate, or whether that would be too forward for now.
тАЬYouтАЩre a professor of history?тАЭ she asked.
I nodded and brought up pictures of Skye, Broadford, Portree, and the family
on the wall screen.
It was then that the terrible reality of what IтАЩd done hit home. тАЬItтАЩs just been a
couple of days to me, but theyтАЩve not seen or heard a thing from me for over a
dozen years now. Like that star system you describe, all of a sudden things come
together, then, boom, IтАЩm off into the cold dark. History can be like that, do you
know? The lives of those who have done things of note oft get a bit messy in the
process. But I left no other complications behind.тАЭ
тАЬMe neither. If you think about it, thatтАЩs probably true of most of us on this