"Bc18" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niven Larry & Pournelle)

"On my way!" he sang. He followed the cable to the wrecked skeeter, and climbed around it, finding handholds every step of the way. He came around to the other side and heard a thump. He peered over, and saw Cadmann hanging there, the cable tangled around his arm.
Jesus. "Cadmann!"
His friend looked up at him. Stunned, not injured. Weyland shook his head, like a water buffalo trying to clear itself, and looked down at the ocean, black and slow, far below him, and then back up at Carlos. "Help me," he whispered. And Carlos extended a hand to him, and helped him up.

Trish found Aaron in the main galley, supervising as the crates were hauled up from the hold and opened. Provisions, and equipment, mostly, and he had chosen well.
"We've got a problem," she said. "We've lost power in engines two and three. We're running on a single engine now."
Aaron's head snapped around. "What?"
"It's true. Five minutes ago. We lost two and--"
Her collar speaker crackled. "Trish. We just lost engine one. We have no power."
"What in the hell!" Aaron seemed to grow, his face reddening, and his entire body growing even as they watched. "We'll be blown back toward land, dammit!"
"I'm afraid so. We have the rudders and stabilizers--"
"I'm going up," he said. "Something is very wrong up there."

Carlos slapped Cadmann's shoulder as the first trace of a human figure appeared over the side of Robor.
The wind howled around them, and Cadmann had to scream.
"Get back, dammit. I have a grendel gun, and I'll use it."
"Cadmann?" Aaron yelled back cautiously. "Damn. How did you . . . ?"
"Power of human stupidity. Just get back down."
"We'll crash if we don't have our power, you know that."
"No, you won't. I'll give you engine one again. You are going to use it to turn around, and head back to land. And then you are going to put down."
"Cadmann. Your daughter died. We have to do something. We have to find out what it was, or her death will be for nothing."
Cadmann was tired and sore. His shoulder throbbed. "Listen to me. We can't talk about that now. I don't have any choice but to turn you around. Let's not let this get any worse than it is."
"Worse than it is. All right."
There was a flicker of movement behind him, and Carlos suddenly screamed, his entire body arcing, Cadmann spun and fired at a figure against the clouds. The grendel gun bucked in his arms. He fired a dart directly into Toshiro Tanaka's chest. Toshiro's hair flew out in a corona, and his teeth clamped on his tongue. Blood shot from between his clenched teeth and his hands lost their grip on the port access ladder. His body arced backwards and he fell screaming and twisting, to the sea far below him.
"Toshiro!" Aaron screamed.
Cadmann, cursing, checked Carlos. He was fine. Damn damn damn! The children had dialed their grendel guns down to stun. He had been too damned tired, too trigger-happy.
And Toshiro Tanaka would plunge two thousand feet to the water below. And from that height, the water might as well have been concrete.
"One dead, Aaron," Cadmann said. And he could barely speak. His teeth were chattering, and not just from the cold. "One dead. Let's end this."
"You killed him, Cadmann," Aaron said. "He's dead, and you killed him. Why don't you tell your people about how you did this to save lives. All right. We're turning around." Aaron climbed back down. Cadmann collapsed against the wet cold plate of the deck and closed his eyes, feeling the rain pelt against his skin.