"Incommunicado" - читать интересную книгу автора (Maclean Katherine)
KATHERINE MacLEAN
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The solar system is not a gentle place. Ten misassorted centers of gigantic pulls and tensions, swinging around each other in ponderous accidental equilibrium, filling space with the violence of their silent battle. Among these giant forces the tiny ships of Earth were overmatched and weak. Few could spend power enough to climb back to space from the vortex of any planetТs field, few dared approach closer than to the satellite spaceports.
Ambition always overreaches strength. There will always be a power shortage. Space became inhabited by underpowered private ships. In a hard school of sudden death new skills were learned. In understanding hands the violence of gravitation, heat, and cold, became sustenance, speed, and power. The knack of traveling was to fall, and fall without resistance, following a free line, using the precious fuel only for fractional changes of direction. To fall, to miss and УbounceФ in a zigzag of carom shotsЧit was a good game for a pool shark, a good game for a handball addict, a pinball specialist, a kinetics expertЕ
УKinetics expertФ is what they called Cliff Baker.
At the sixth hour of the fourth week of Pluto Station project he had nothing more to worry about than a fragment of tune which would not finish itself. Cliff floated out of the master control room whistling softly and looking for something to do.
A snatch of SmittyТs discordant voice raised in song came from a hatch as he passed. Cliff changed direction and dove through into the darkness of a glassite dome. A rubbery crossbar stopped him at the glowing control panel.
УTake a break, Smitty. Let me take over for a while.Ф
УHi, chief,Ф said Smitty, his hands moving deftly at the panel. УThanks. How come you can spare the time? Is the rest of the circus so smooth? No emergencies, everything on schedule?Ф
УLike clockwork,Ф said Cliff. УKnock wood.Ф He crossed fingers for luck and solemnly rapped his skull. УTake a half hour, but keep your earphones tuned in case something breaks.Ф
УSure.Ф Smitty gave Cliff a slap on the shoulder and shoved off. УWatch yourself now. Look out for the psychologist.Ф His laugh echoed back from the corridor.
The blonde was supposed to be the visiting psychologist sent up by Spaceways. She was a master personality who could hypnotize with a glance, a sorceress who could produce mass hallucinations with a gesture. She wound up saving the Earth from Cliff. He was supposed to have been subtly and insanely arranging the Pluto Station orbit, so that when it was finished it would leave Pluto and fall on Earth like a bomb.
Cliff had been watching the movie through an eyepiece-earphone rig during a rest period, but he laughed so much he fell out of his hammock and tangled himself in guide lines, and the others on the rest shift had given up trying to sleep and decided to play the movie on the big projector. They would be calling in on the earphones about it soon, kidding him.
He grinned, listening to the psychologist without subtracting from the speed and concentration of handling the control panel. Out in space before the ship, working as deftly as a distant pair of hands, the bulldog construction units unwrapped floating bundles of parts, spun, pulled, magnetized, fitted, welded, assembling another complex perfect segment of the huge Pluto Station.
УIТd like to get back to Earth,Ф said the psychologist in a soft tenor voice that was faintly Irish, like a younger brother of Mike. УLook, Cliff, youТre top man in this line. You can plot me a short cut, canТt you?Ф The psychologist, Roy Pierce, was a slender dark Polynesian who seemed less than twenty years old. During his stay he had floated around watching with all the innocent awe of a tourist, and proved his profession only in an ingratiating skill with jokes. Yet he was extremely likeable, and seemed familiar in some undefinable way, as if one had known him all his life.
УWhy not use the astrogator?Ф Cliff asked him mildly.
УBlast the astrogator! All it gives is courses that swing around the whole rim of the System and wonТt get me home for weeks!Ф
УIt doesnТt have to do that,Ф Cliff said thoughtfully. The segment was finished. He set the controls of the bulldogs to guide it to the next working sector and turned around, lining up factors in his mind. УWhy not stick around? Maybe someone will develop a split personality for you.Ф
УMy wife is having a baby,Ф Pierce explained. УI promised IТd be there. Besides, I want to help educate it through the first year. There are certain things a baby can learn that make a difference later.Ф
УAre you willing to spend four days in the acceleration tank just to go down and pester your poor kid?Ф Cliff floated over to a celestial sphere and idly spun it back and forth through the planetary positions of the month.
УOf course.Ф
УO.K. I think I see a short cut. ItТs a little risky, and the astrogator is inhibited against risk. IТll tell you later.Ф
УYouТre stalling,Ф complained Pierce, yanking peevishly at a bending crossbar. УYouТre the expert who keeps the orbits of three thousand flying skew bodies tied in fancy knots, and here I want just a simple orbit for one little flitter. You could tell me now.Ф
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