"Larry Niven - The Hole Man" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niven Larry)

He was coming back from a walk, and he met Childrey coming out. Childrey noticed that the waste spigot on LearТs suit was open, the spring broken. Lear had been out for hours. If heТd had to go, he might have bled to death through flesh ruptured by vacuum.
We never learned all that Childrey said to him out there. But Lear came in very red about the ears, muttering under his breath. He wouldnТt talk to anyone.
The NASA psychologists should not have put them both on that small a planet. Hindsight is wonderful, right? But Lear and Childrey were each the best choice for competence coupled to the kind of health they would need to survive the trip. There were astrophysicists as competent and as famous as Lear, but they were decades older. And Childrey had a thousand spaceflight hours to his credit. He had been one of the last men on the moon.
Individually, each of us was the best possible man. It was a damn shame.

The aliens had left the communicator going, like everything else in the base. It must have been hellishly massive, to judge by the thick support pillars slanting outward beneath it. It was a bulky tank of a thing, big enough that the roof had
to bulge slightly to give it room. That gave Lear about a square meter of the only head room in the base.
Even Lear had no idea why theyТd put it on the second floor. It would send through the first floor, or through the bulk of a planet. Lear learned that by trying it, once he knew enough. He beamed a dot-dash message through Mars itself to the Forward Mass Detector aboard Lowell.
Lear had set up a Mass Detector next to the communicator, on an extremely complex platform designed to protect it from vibration. The Detector produced waves so sharply pointed that some of us thought they could feel the gravity radiation coming from the communicator.
Lear was in love with the thing.
He skipped meals. When he ate he ate like a starved wolf. УThereТs a heavy point-mass in there,Ф he told us, talking around a mouthful of food, two months after the landing. УThe machine uses electromagnetic fields to vibrate it at high speed. LookЧФ He picked up a toothpaste tube of tuna spread and held it in front of him. He vibrated it rapidly. Heads turned to watch him around the zigzagged communal table in the alien mess. УIТm making gravity waves now. But theyТre too mushy because the tubeТs too big, and their amplitude is virtually zero. ThereТs something very dense and massive in that machine, and it takes a hell of a lot of field strength to keep it there.Ф
УWhat is it?Ф someone asked. УNeutronium? Like the heart of a neutron star?Ф
Lear shook his head and took another mouthful. УThat size, neutronium wouldnТt be stable. I think itТs a quantum black hole. I donТt know how to measure its mass yet.Ф
I said, УA quantum black hole?Ф
Lear nodded happily. УLuck for me. You know, I was against the Mars expedition. We could get a lot more for our money by exploring the asteroids. Among other things, we might have found if there are really quantum black holes out there. But this oneТs already captured!Ф He stood up, being careful of his head. He turned in his tray and went back to work.
I remember we stared at each other along the zigzag mess table. Then we drew lots . . . and I lost.

The day Lear left his waste spigot open, Childrey had put a restriction on him. Lear was not to leave the base without an escort.
Lear had treasured the aloneness of those walks. But it was worse than that. Childrey had given him a list of possible escorts: half a dozen men Childrey could trust to see to it that Lear did nothing dangerous to himself or others. Inevitably they were the men most thoroughly trained in space survival routines, most addicted to ChildreyТs own compulsive neatness, least likely to sympathize with LearТs way of living. Lear was as likely to ask Childrey himself to go walking with him.
He almost never went out any more. I knew exactly where to find him.
I stood beneath him, looking up through the gridwork floor.
HeТd almost finished dismantling the protective panels around the gravity communicator. What showed inside looked like parts of a computer in one spot, electromagnetic coils in most places, and a square array of pushbuttons that might have been the aliensТ idea of a typewriter. Lear was using a magnetic induction sensor to try to trace wiring without actually tearing off the insulation.
I called, УHow you making out?Ф
УNo good,Ф he said. УThe insulation seems to be one hundred per cent perfect. Now IТm afraid to open it up. No telling how much power is running through
there, if it needs shielding that good.Ф He smiled down at me. УLet me show you something.Ф
УWhat?Ф
He flipped a toggle above a dull gray circular plate. УThis thing is a microphone. It took me a while to find it. I am Andrew Lear, speaking to whoever may be listening.Ф He switched it off, then ripped paper from the Mass Indicator and showed me squiggles interrupting smooth sine waves. УThere. The sound of my voice in gravity radiation. It wonТt disappear until itТs reached the edges of the universe.Ф
УLear, you mentioned quantum black holes there. WhatТs a quantum black hole?Ф
УUm. You know what a black hole is.Ф
УI ought to.Ф Lear had educated us on the subject, at length, during the months aboard Lowell.
When a not too massive star has used up its nuclear fuel, it collapses into a white dwarf. A heavier starЧsay, 1.44 times the mass of the sun and largerЧcan burn out its fuel, then collapse into itself until it is ten kilometers across and composed solely of neutrons packed edge to edge: the densest matter in this universe.
But a big star goes further than that. When a really massive star runs its course
when the radiation pressure within is no longer strong enough to hold the outer layers against the starТs own ferocious gravity . . . then it can fall into itself entirely, until gravity is stronger than any other force, until it is compressed past the Schwarzchild radius and effectively leaves the universe. What happens to it then is problematical. The Schwarzchild radius is the boundary beyond which nothing can climb out of the gravity well, not even light.
The star is gone then, but the mass remains: a lightless hole in space, perhaps a hole into another universe.
УA collapsing star can leave a black hole,Ф said Lear. УThere may be bigger black holes, whole galaxies that have fallen into themselves. But thereТs no other way a black hole can form, now.Ф
УSo?Ф
УThere was a time when black holes of all sizes could form. That was during the Big Bang, the explosion that started the expanding universe. The forces in that blast could have compressed little local vortices of matter past the Schwarzchild radius. What that left behindЧthe smallest ones, anywayЧwe call quantum black holes.Ф
I heard a distinctive laugh behind me as Captain Childrey walked into view. The bulk of the communicator would have hidden him from Lear, and I hadnТt heard him come up. He called, УJust how big a thing are you talking about? Could I pick one up and throw it at you?Ф
УYouТd disappear into one that size,Ф Lear said seriously. УA black hole the mass of the Earth would only be a centimeter across. No, IТm talking about things from tento-the-minus-fifth grams on up. There could be one at the center of the sunЧФ
УEek!Ф
Lear was trying. He didnТt like being kidded, but he didnТt know how to stop it. Keeping it serious wasnТt the way, but he didnТt know that either. УSay ten-tothe-seventeenth grams in mass and ten-to-the-minus-eleven centimeters across. It would be swallowing a few atoms a day.Ф
УWell, at least you know where to find it,Ф said Childrey. УNow all you have to do is go after it.Ф
Lear nodded, still serious. УThere could be quantum black holes in asteroids. A small asteroid could capture a quantum black hole easily enough, especially if it was charged; a black hole can hold a charge, you knowЧФ
УRi-ight.Ф
УAll weТd have to do is check out a small asteroid with the Mass Detector. If it masses more than it should, we push it aside and see if it leaves a black hole behind.Ф
УYouТd need little teeny eyes to see something that small. Anyway, what would you do with it?Ф
УYou put a charge on it, if it hasnТt got one already, and electromagnetic fields. You can vibrate it to make gravity; then you manipulate it with radiation. I think IТve got one in here,Ф he said, patting the alien communicator.
УRi-ight,Ф said Childrey, and he went away laughing.

Within a week the whole base was referring to Lear as the Hole Man, the man with the black hole between his ears.