"The Sails Of Tau Ceti" - читать интересную книгу автора (McCollum Michael)

Or was your question a subtle way of asking whether IТm married?Ф
She felt her complexion grow even redder. УIt wasnТt. Are you?Ф
УDivorced,Ф Van Zandt said. УMy wife didnТt like the long separations that go
with patrol duty. We ended our contract amicably and are still good friends.
You?Ф
УNo.Ф
УBoyfriend?Ф
УNo one steady since I graduated from college.Ф Tory averted her gaze. УYou must
think me old fashioned.Ф
УNot at all. I am aware that Martian mores are different from those of Earth. No
need to apologize for them.Ф He looked down at his glass, which was empty. УI
need a refill. How about you?Ф
УYes, please.Ф
She watched him as him made his way through the crowd toward the bar. After
three years on Phobos, her thoughts were of more than the mission.
#
Tory Bronson stared bleary eyed at her work screen and wondered what it was that
she had been about to do. She had returned to Phobos ten days earlier to a
nearly insurmountable problem. In theory, dismounting theStarhopper instrument
package from the stack and adding a fleet corvette in its place was little more
than a recalculation of vehicle mass and balance. In practice, it meant a major
overhaul to the vehicleТs control software.
Nor was there anyone else to do the work. Once she decided what was to be done
with each of about ten thousand different subroutines, the small army of
programmers she had been promised would guide the computers in their work.
Determining what had to be done in the first place was a job that required a
single brain and a single vision. At the moment, that brain ached from overload.
The biggest headaches were the subroutines that checked the instrument packageТs
health from millisecond to millisecond. All were carefully designed to keep the
interstellar probe functioning for the half a century of unattended flight
required to get to Alpha Centauri. Every subroutine would interpret the removal
of the instrument package as a major system failure, and would attempt to route
around the failed component. When that failed, God only knew what they would do.
Most of the health monitoring routines could simply be deactivated, of course.
Most, but not all. Some were vital to the proper operation of the booster.
Figuring out which category each routine belonged in was the difficult part of
the job.
Since her return to Phobos, Tory had been at her workstation from breakfast
until long after the corridor lights went blue. She never really caught up, but
the extra hours kept her from falling farther behind. She had forgotten what it
was like not to feel tired. Fatigue caused her work to suffer, which made her
less productive, which required longer hours, which increased her fatigue. She
had no difficulty in recognizing the vicious cycle for what it was. Recognizing
it and being able to do something about it were two different things.
Her only respite from the tyranny of the computer came during meals hurriedly
gulped down at her workstation and the two hours each day she spent answering
Garth Van ZandtТs questions. He, too, was working long hours as he struggled to
learn everything he could about his new command. She did not envy him his task.
Even after three years of watchingStarhopper go together beam by beam, she was
still trying to master the tiniest details of the boosterТs construction. Van