"Judith Merril - Stormy Weather" - читать интересную книгу автора (Merril Judith)

began a slow, walking circuit of the room, logging the meter readings, resetting dials and controls.
Her mind was made up now. She would notтАФrepeat, and underline, would notтАФmake any effort to
call Mike during the next period. After the 1600 check she could try againтАФonce.

ALL quiet. All correct. Cathy fed her readings into the calcker, pulled a fresh tape out of the analog
computer, and fed that data too into the softly whirring machine for swift comparison, knowing
beforehand what the results would be. Everything checked well within the margin. She noted the minor
variations meticulously on the analog corrector, reset the alarm systems, and checked her mental picture
visually on the radar screen.
Everything in its place. A few tidy little asteroids, chasing their orbits around the vanishing sun, just as
trim and true as the course of her own hollow cylinder of metal. Plenty of traffic to log, of course, but
none to worry about. She was less than a million miles out from Earth now, and at that distance, Control
Central still handled the live traffic.
All quiet . . . Bound to be quiet here, on the sunside swing of the Station's "rogue" orbit. A few more
days, and she'd be inside Earth, slanting steadily "down" from the ecliptic, headed for perihelion just
outside Venus. But by the time that happened, she wouldn't be aboard.
Just five more days to this tour. A week's timeтАФone short week, if you looked at it that wayтАФand
she'd be back on Earth, while the station whirled on under the care of a pleasant-looking blonde girl
named Eileen whose height and weight and basal metabolism rate were just the same as Cathy's, and
who, fortunately, liked the same music and films. More than that they were unlikely to know about each
other everтАФor at least not while they were both in Service.
Thirty days on, thirty off. A great life if you could take it. The pay was good. The food was better
than you might think. If you didn't mind no gravity or solitude. The living conditions were pleasant enough,
once you had your own permanent Station, especially if your alternate had somewhat the same tastes you
did. Bring out a few replacements each new trip for reading and amusement, and find the changes made
in your absence as well.
Five years of it, and you were set for life. Not that you could save much in ServiceтАФtoo much
temptation to spend when you were Earthside. But besides the retirement pay, which was good, there
were always jobs waiting for the glamorous heroes and heroines of the Space Service; and the best jobs
of all were for the expert psichosomanticists who womannedтАФor mannedтАФthe Stations.
Cathy had almost four years of it behind her now. Seven more tours to retirementтАФand they'd both
agreed it was foolish of her to quit. They could spend almost half the time together anyhow; and with
both of them p-s-trained, no more was necessary. They could always keep in message-touch.
That's what they told each other, sanely, sensibly, after twenty days of wonder and enchantment
back on Earth. No, not twenty, she reminded herself: nineteen. There was one day when they quarreled
.. .
That was even worse than now. That time she'd known his absence was angry and deliberate. Now
she could find excuses, invent reasons . . . Drunk? . . . doped? .. . dead? . . . she asked herself brutally,
marveling that she found these answers easier to contemplate than anger or indifference.
Because I don't believe them, she realized ruefully. But what other reasons could there be?
Pride. His foolish pride! Or just hard work? Something top secret so he couldn't even let her know?
Or ...
Sure, lots of reasons she could find, but noneтАФthe last includedтАФthat could make him just walk out
without warning as he'd done. Unless the dream had been a warning after all: the scream in the dream
that woke her from a period's sleep three long days back, just as the Station entered the penumbra of
eclipse. He'd been gone when she came frightened-wide-awake that time; and she hadn't been able to
reach him since.
 THE coincidence was tempting, but she knew better. It couldn't be because of the eclipse. If it took
radiating energy to message with, no one would ever be able to contact Earth from the outer Stations. . .
.