"Ian R. MacLeod - Tirkiluk" - читать интересную книгу автора (Macleod Ian R)

IAN R. MacLEOD

TIRKILUK

Radio transmission from Queen of Erin via Letwick to Meteorological
Intelligence, Godalming. Confirm Science Officer Seymour disembarked Logos II
Weatherbase Tuiak Bay July 28. Science Officer Cayman boarded in adequate
health. No enemy activity sighted. Visibility good. Wind force 4 east veering
north. Clear sea. Returning.

Noon, July 29th, 1942

Stood watching on the shingle as the Queen of Erin lifted anchor and steamed
south. I really don't feel alone. The gulls were screaming and wheeling, the
seabirds were crowding the rocks and just as the Queen finally vanished around
the headland, the huge gray gleaming back of a whale broke from the water
barely
two hundred yards from the shore, crashing in billows of spray and steam. I
take
it as a sign of welcome.

Evening, August 2nd

Have been giving the main and backup generators a thorough overhaul. Warm
enough
to work outside the hut in shirtsleeves -- but you only have to look around to
see what winter will bring. The mountains north of this valley look as though
they've been here forever, and the glacier nosing between down from the
icefields is just too big to believe. It's twenty miles off, and I can barely
span it with my outstretched hand. Feel very small.

Noon, August 3rd

Spent a dreadful night on the bunk as the blackfly and mosquito insect bites
began to swell and itch. The itching has gone now, but I'm covered in scabs
and
weeping sores. Hope that nothing gets infected.

Evening, August 6th

Wish I'd had more of a chance to talk with Frank Cayman before we exchanged,
but
there were all the technical details to go over, and the supplies to unload.
He
did tell me he was part of a Cambridge expedition to Patagonia in 1935, which,
like my own brief pre-war experience with the solar eclipse over South
Orkneys,
was seen as proof of aptitude for maintaining an Arctic weather station. He's
a
geologist -- but then the pre-war specializations of the Science Officers I