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

what he wanted to know.

тАЬWhat was it, Doc?тАЭ he asked a white-haired man in his personal screen after keying for the shipтАЩs chief
scientist.

тАЬWhatever it was,тАЭ Raoul Bendagar replied, тАЬit wreaked holy hell with our instruments. Half of them lost
calibration at the same precise moment we felt the shock.тАЭ

тАЬYou must have some idea,тАЭ Landon persisted.

тАЬWait a second while I check something,тАЭ Bendagar answered. He stooped to manipulate a screen on
which a series of glowing red lines were superimposed on a polar coordinate grid. тАЬWell IтАЩll be damned.тАЭ

тАЬDonтАЩt keep me in suspense.тАЭ

Bendagar glanced up at the captain, a look of shock on his face. тАЬWe just experienced the Grand
Hooting Monster of all gravity waves, Captain. No wonder it knocked everything out of alignment.тАЭ

Landon frowned. He knew that gravity waves existed, of course. For more than a century, a trio of
satellites had orbited between Earth and Mars at a precise one thousand kilometers from one another.
They used laser beams to maintain their spacing to twelve digits of accuracy, forming a vast right triangle
that detected the microscopic distortions caused by the collapse of distant stars and other more
catastrophic events. The largest gravity wave ever detected had distorted space by an amount less than
the width of a proton. This one had been heavy enough to rattle Landon as he sat in his cabin.

тАЬCome off it, Doc. CouldnтАЩt have been.тАЭ

тАЬThe instruments recorded a distortion wave traveling from Equipment Lock Two to the boat deck at the
speed of light. Call it what you will, but I say it was a gravity wave.тАЭ

тАЬCaptain,тАЭ the communicator on duty reported, тАЬScout Three has a sighting report.тАЭ

тАЬPut her through.тАЭ

As usual, Jani RykandтАЩs features were framed in a tousled copper explosion of hair. Unlike most women
who lived and worked in microgravity, she refused to bob her mane, or to keep it bound in a hair net. On
her, it looked good.

тАЬReport!тАЭ

тАЬSomething weird going on out here, Captain. I am getting energy readings from a point thirty degrees aft
of my orbital path.тАЭ

Landon glanced at Bendagar.

тАЬWeтАЩve got them, too,тАЭ the chief scientist reported.

тАЬWhat do you make of it, Scout Three?тАЭ

тАЬHirayamaтАЩs got the scope focused on it, Captain. It looks like a couple of ships.тАЭ