"Thunderstrike" - читать интересную книгу автора (McCollum Michael)

THUNDERSTRIKE!

A Novel By

Michael McCollum


Sci Fi - Arizona, Inc.
Third Millennium Publishing
A Cooperative of Online Writers and Resources



PART 1: VISITOR FROM THE DEEP BLACK

CHAPTER 1

For millions of years, the sun had merely been the brightest point of light in
the sky, a cold beacon little different from the thousands of others visible in
the ebon firmament. Now it was growing perceptibly larger month by month, year
by year. The change was not without precedent. A billion years earlier, the
planetoid had collided with a bit of orbiting debris out beyond Pluto. The
force of the impact had altered its orbit forever. One hundred eleven times the
planetoid had plunged deep into the fires of the inner Solar system, whirled
quickly around the sun, and then retreated once more into the cold black. The
ordeal had been presaged each time by a brightening of the distant yellow star.
About the time the sun began to show a visible disk, the ice plains and cliffs
began to stir with ethereal winds as hydrogen and oxygen frost turned slowly to
vapor. Initially these winds were as insubstantial as wraiths, little more than
individual molecules escaping the planetoidТs weak gravitation. Later, when the
sun had grown still larger in the sky, the snowy surface began to emit gentle
puffs of gas, dust, and vapor. Weak though it was, the planetoidТs gravity was
sufficient to wrap it with a wisp of vacuum-thin fog. By the time the flying
mountain crossed the orbit of Uranus, the fog had grown thick enough to obscure
it from anyone who might pick it out among the background stars.
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Amber Hastings sat at her desk and wistfully watched Farside ObservatoryТs big
hundred-meter-effective compound telescope swing ponderously into position. Her
vantage point was almost directly up-sun from the giant instrument. As she
watched, lengthening black shadows stretched across the floor of Mendeleev
Crater. The view was from one of the pylon cameras situated to provide a
panoramic view of the Solar SystemТs largest astronomical instrument. In the
background, the grey-brown wall of the craterТs western rim thrust above the
curved horizon in stark relief unsoftened by atmosphere.
The telescope appeared to be a species of giant metal flower springing forth
from LunaТs airless, sterile soil. The flowerТs hexagonal leaves reflected their
surroundings with the distortion of parabolic mirrors. At three places around
the instrumentТs periphery, flat mirrors were lifted skyward on cherry picker
booms in semblance of weirdly jointed stamens. The likeness to an alien plant
was heightened by the telescopeТs dust dome, whose eight sections lay folded