"Michael McCollum - Gibraltar earth" - читать интересную книгу автора (McCollum Michael)

тАЬThe coordinator only said that you could expect to be away for several months.тАЭ

тАЬWho will take my classes?тАЭ

тАЬArdmore can handle most of them, and weтАЩll get Shipingdale to help out. DonтАЩt worry, weтАЩll manage.тАЭ

тАЬAnd you canтАЩt tell me what IтАЩll be doing?тАЭ

тАЬAll I know is that it is a matter of some urgency.тАЭ

тАЬThis is silly, Chancellor! They really expect me to make up my mind without telling me anything about
the project? I thought things like this only happen in historical holofilms.тАЭ

тАЬIтАЩve never seen anything like it,тАЭ Seaton agreed. тАЬThat, coupled with the coordinatorтАЩs interest, should
give you some idea of the importance.тАЭ

тАЬOr else the bureaucrats are merely playing their damned power games.тАЭ

тАЬI am sure that if you find the assignment not to your liking, you can always resign. Nothing will be said if
we find you back here in a week. Now then, your decision, please.тАЭ

тАЬI suppose IтАЩll do it. When do I leave?тАЭ

тАЬTheyтАЩve booked you on this afternoonтАЩs flight out of Sahara Spaceport, if you can make it.тАЭ

Lisa let her eyes go wide as she considered the implications. She had thought his comment about being
back in a week had been rhetorical. She had expected to have time to prepare for the trip and
coordinate with those who were taking over her classes. She could not possibly leave this afternoon!

тАЬYouтАЩre not serious.тАЭ

тАЬI am very serious, Professor Arden. They were emphatic that I should put my selection on this
afternoonтАЩs booster. Now then, are you still our volunteer?тАЭ

Despite her misgivings, six hours later, Professor Lisa Arden, Ph.D., found herself forced deep into an
acceleration couch as scramjet engines roared somewhere behind her and the outside sky turned from
dark blue to jet black.

#

Her instructions were to take the C-Ring lift down to Gamma deck, and from there, to proceed sixty
degrees to spinward, to Compartment G-103.

As the lift descended into higher gravity, strange things happened to her inner ear. There was a name for
the effect, she knew, but she could not remember it. When spin-gravity had climbed to approximately
one-quarter of a standard gee, the doors opened to reveal a corridor that curved sharply upward in both
directions. She turned to spinward (the direction being prominently marked on the opposite bulkhead)
and began striding. G-103 was closer than expected and she nearly missed it. She pressed a recessed
control in the corridor wall. A moment later, the door slid into its recess to reveal a small anteroom of the
sort that guards the entrance to most airport and spaceport VIP lounges.