"Bc35" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niven Larry & Pournelle)

Aaron was the first to speak. "Freeze me alive! You've hit it! Fossilized bees in the coal? The speed might act like flecks of dynamite under circumstances like that--"
Suddenly the entire room was vibrant with discussion. Aaron stood in the middle of it. "I think that this is cause for celebration," he said.
"Why is that? These bees--"
"Don't you see? I think that we are entitled to an apology. For months, one ugly question has hovered over the entire colony: Who sabotaged the mines?
"And there was a second question: Who or what killed Linda and Joe? Now we've answered both questions. The bees came through the pass--Cassandra, what were the weather conditions at Deadwood Pass when Joe and Linda were killed?"
"A hot dry sirocco wind blowing from the western high desert."
"Sure," Aaron said. "And that's what did it. The wind picked up a swarm, blew them across the desert and over the pass. Linda and Joe had the bad fortune to be in the way. They were stripped to the bone in minutes by starving, disoriented necrophage bees."
Sylvia looked devastated. "We were so careful."
"Careful to avoid the Avalon ecology rather than understand it," Cadmann said. "And that one falls right into my lap. I thought we could do it. I thought Deadwood Pass was safe. Oh, Lord!"
"What?"
"Eden Oasis. Just luck the wind didn't blow that way while it was full of Grendel Scouts! The worst of it is, I knew all along the only real safety was in understanding what we faced, and I didn't do anything about it."
"I didn't want you killed by the dragon," Sylvia whispered.
"We all thought the same thing, amigo," Carlos said. "We did." He gestured toward Aaron and the others. "They had a different view."
"But you do see the danger?" Big Chaka said carefully.
Aaron nodded. "It's a real danger, but being eaten by bees is no worse than being stung to death by a colony of them back on Earth. Individually, they are probably pretty harmless, and anyway they generally stay in the lowlands where we don't go. In some circumstance that we don't completely understand, they swarm and can reach highlands like Deadwood Pass. Fine. We will study them, and become aware of them. We can build shelters. And now, more than anything else we need to find out--why did Cadzie Weyland survive?"
There rose a buzz of speculation. Big Chaka cleared his throat. "We need to learn more about bees."
"So let's go on a bee hunt!" Carlos cried. "Katya and I know where to start in the morning."
"Not alone, though," Aaron said.
"We will not leave the safe area--"
"I'm afraid there is no safe area," Aaron said. "Not since we saw the grendel this afternoon. Chaka, just how could a grendel be there?"
Little Chaka shook his head. "I have no idea. I would have taken a mighty oath that there was, there could be, no grendel there."
"Avalon Surprise," Sylvia said.