"Elizabeth Moon - Serrano 7 - Against the Odds" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moon Elizabeth)

"This is stupid," Professor Gustaf Aidersson said. Bundled in his yellow
leather jacket over his Personal Protective Unit, with a peculiar gray
furry hat on his head, he looked more like a tubby vagrant than a
brilliant scientist. "When I was a boy, I used to imagine things like
this, being marooned on an island and having to figure out a way to get
home. I had thousands of plans, each one crazier than the one before. Make
a boat out of my grandmother's porch swing, make an airplane out of the
solar collector, take the juicer and a skein of yarn, two cups, and a
knitting needle and make a communications device."

Margiu wondered whether to say anything; she couldn't feel her ears
anymore.

"So here we are, on the perfect island, full of challenges. I should be
improvising rappelling gear to go down the cliffs, and something to
construct a sailboat . . . I actually have built a boat, you know, but it
was with wood from a lumberyard. And I sailed it, and it didn't sink. Of
course, it wouldn't hold all of us."

"Sir," Margiu said, "don't you think we should go back inside?"

"Probably." He didn't move. "And there is not one thing on this blasted
island to make a boat or an airplane out of." He gave a last look at the
blackened stain that had been their transport. Then he looked at Margiu
and his mouth quirked in a mischievous grin. "There's only one thing to
do, when the bad guys have all the transport . . ."

"Sir?"

"Make them give it to us," he said, and headed inside so abruptly that
Margiu was left behind. She caught up with him as he went in the door.

"Make them-?"



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"It's a desperate chance . . . but by God it'll be fun if it works," he
said. He looked around the room at the scientists and military personnel
who were also stranded. "Listen-I have an idea!"

"You always have an idea, Gussie," one of the scientists said. Margiu
still hadn't sorted them all out by name. They all looked tired and
grumpy. "You probably want us to make an airplane out of bedsprings or
something . . ."

"No. I thought of that, but we don't have enough bedsprings. I want the
mutineers to bring us an airplane and give it to us."