"Severna Park - The Three Unknowns" - читать интересную книгу автора (Park Severna)

The Three Unknowns

by Severna Park


Act I




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Althea Mendez, the esteemed Chair of the Department of Archaeology at Oxford University, turned over
on the acceleration couch, silenced the alarm clock with the back of her hand, and, for the
two-hundredth time in so many days, examined the view from her cabin's porthole. Today, finally, there
was Mars, which meant the J. Nessepah had turned and was starting to decelerate. She wiped away the
steam of her breath and leaned even closer to the window. Were they near enough to see the roads?
That big intersection of rusty scratchings near the equator was probably the science station at Alba
Fossae in the Amazonis Planitia. From there a long scrape headed northwest across ruddy valleys and
cream-colored plateaus to Candor Chasma and the archaeological dig. Althea tapped the window with a
fingernail. By tomorrow she should be able to see Hoshi Noh's tiny, troubling excavation.
She put on her clothes and walked down the chilly corridor past the cabins where the rest of the
passengers were sleeping or keeping to themselves. Space travel, she reflected again, was only slightly
better than flying on an airplane. Sure, she had a cabin to herself, but the cabin was, at best, a box, and
thirty weeks in a box was still thirty weeks in a box. She'd been lucky to get a box of her own with the
forty-odd people crammed on board the J. Nessepah. Most of the passengers blended into an
uninteresting crowd that shuffled through mealtimes and the ship's cold hallways trailed by the tang of
ozone and unwashed socks, and Althea didn't consider herself a social person, but it was impossible not
to get to know a few of her neighbors. There were three Fellows in Sociological Studies from Oxford
stuffed into the room next to her. The only reason they stood out was because at breakfast on the first
day of the trip, one of them found out Althea was going to Candor Chasma and lit upтАФjust for a
second.

"I dated Hoshi Noh back at Oxford," he'd said. Given the situation on Mars, this was something that
might earn him points, as Hoshi was on the very verge of huge fame.

Althea had smiled and introduced herself, and he'd put his fork down, eyes wide.

"Professor Althea Mendez? You were Hoshi's teacher."

She smiled, showing her teeth. "She mentioned me? Good things, I hope?"

The Fellow slurped his coffee nervously and didn't answer. For Althea, the conversation set the tone for
the entire trip. It made her not mind her stay in the box so much, secure in the knowledge that Hoshi
hadn't called her to Mars for advice, or to show off her progress. Instead it was a challenge; one final,
decisive round in an academic grudge match that had started years ago. And just because the playing
field had changed to some other planet didn't mean that Althea intended to lose the upper hand. Just
thinking about it lifted her spirits and warmed her in the chilly, recycled air. Althea turned left at the end of
the passenger corridor and headed for the mess.