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

back like the petals of a rose.
Amber watched as the giant instrument finished pivoting toward a section of sky
near Galactic-South. Starlight was reflected from the telescopeТs
five-meter-diameter mirrors into the Number 3 concentrator, which sent the
highly focused image to the beam director. From there, the photons were
directed into the instrument room of the observatory fifty meters below the
crater floor. There the light was sampled by an array of sophisticated devices
in the hope that it could be made to yield its secrets.
Amber Elizabeth Hastings was a typical Lunarian - tall by Earth standards (180
centimeters) and tending toward lankiness. The shorts, singlet, and slippers,
which were normal attire for LunaТs air-conditioned cities, did little to hide a
full, if large boned figure. Amber was a Nordic blonde with blue eyes. In
contravention of the short hairstyles preferred by most Lunarian women, she wore
her hair at shoulder length.
Amber had been born twenty-five years earlier in the small community of MinerТs
Luck, located near Darwin Crater in the Nearside Highlands. At age eighteen, she
had entered the University of Luna with the intention of becoming an
Environmental Engineer. She had quickly decided that a life spent in the bowels
of LunaТs cities held no attraction for her, and had begun to search for a new
profession.
Attending a university is supposed to prepare one for later life. In AmberТs
case, it had only emphasized her antipathy to the usual courses of study. The
only class she enjoyed during her freshman year was Introduction to Astronomy.
Like most Lunarians, Amber had never paid much attention to the sky. LunaТs
underground cities gave few opportunities to stargaze. Since Amber had been
raised on Nearside, whenever she did have occasion to study the sky, the view
overhead had always been dominated by the Earth. Compared to the Mother of Men,
the tiny pinpricks of light that were the stars seemed pale and insignificant.
Introduction to Astronomyhad opened her eyes to the universe beyond Luna. She
had marveled at the spiral sweep of the Andromeda Galaxy, been awed by the
blazing blue-white glory of the Pleiades, and had sighed over the muted
multispectral beauty of the Horsehead Nebula. Each new revelation had caused
her to want to learn more. Therefore, at the end of her first year, Amber had
switched her major to astronomy, intending the change to be a stopgap until she
could find something permanent.
Three years later, and somewhat to her own surprise, Amber had found herself the
recipient of a Bachelor of Astronomical Science degree. With it had come an
offer for a job on the staff of Farside Observatory. She had accepted happily
amid visions of quickly making a brilliant discovery. Reality had turned out to
be less glamorous.
As in so many other fields, the computer revolution had changed astronomy
forever. Gone were the days when a lone scientist bundled up against the cold
air and spent the night in the observation cage of a giant telescope. Gone too
were the weeks and months spent poring over photographic plates with magnifiers,
or in tediously plotting the absorption lines of stellar spectrums.
A modern astronomer could sit in his easy chair anywhere in the Solar system,
work out an observation program, and transmit his request and charge number to
his observatory of choice. In due course, he would receive multispectral views
and numerical data, all neatly annotated. In between request and result, the
process was virtually untouched by human hands.