"Fredrik Pohl - Callistan Tomb" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pohl Frederick)

CALLISTAN TOMB
RAWSON stirred his huge bulk and snapped on the audio set at his elbow. "тАФbringing to you," it
said abruptly, "flashes from the news fronts of the solar system.
"We have received from Earth a steady flow of bulletins on the plague. Our last report announces the
death of Commissioner Wheelock, statesman and scholar of New Britain. The Commissioner, said the
report, was eased of his pain by an injection of carbon monoxide in solution. His life had been
surrendered by his attendant physicians a week ago when drawings were made for distribution of the
radium ship's cargo and his group's number did not come up.
"Flashed from Calcutta: Dr. Mohan Shar, member of the Eurasian Presidium, is under treatment
made possible by the arrival of Thursday's ore consignment from Callisto. Despite the advanced stage of
the disease into which he had passed, it is confidently predicted that Dr. Shar will shortly reach complete
recovery. That is all."
The audio fell silent, and Rawson cut off the current. "Hear that, Foley?" he asked.
His bunk-mate, a thin, bald Irishman, sat up. "Sure," he said. "Shar's a fine man. I'm glad he's pulling
through the Sickness all right. Have you ever seen a case?"
"Two of them. Haven't you?"
"NoтАФnot yet. I'm part of the regular staff on hereтАФI was working on the old five-hour day when the
Sickness came to Earth and you extras shoved us out of bed with your three eight-hour shifts. Tell me
about the Sickness. What does it do to them?тАЭ
Rawson scanned the ceiling evasively. "One of the cases I saw broke out on the Earth-Jupiter ship.
The man knew he had it; his number was passed a few times; so he set off to come to the radium as long
it wouldn't come to him. I don't know how he came through the cordonтАФI guess it was bribery."
Rawson hesitated. "They say itтАЩs a kind of cancer, but this man тАж Well, he didn't look like any
cancer patient. It came through his skin, over in tight lumps like apples. He got red and shiny in the face,
too. Skipper had to get the surgeon to give him the monoxide and chuck him out . . .тАЭ
"Go on, man," urged Foley, noting the big American's pause. "What was the other one?"
"The other one? He was my brother."
"Oh. . . . Sorry," said Foley "Then there's no one who knows better than you what we're doing. I
thought it was the pay that brought youтАФbut Lord knows you earn it every second. It's a job for real
men down in the mines where we go ...тАЭ He trailed off into silence as Rawson stared at him with
something indescribable in his eyes.
"Don't talk about it then, Foley,' said the American. "Do you think I don't know what the risk is down
bottom? Do you think I don't know why the replacements and extras keep coining in and never going
out? Don't talk about it at all, and maybe you and I will get along better while we last."
A bell rang clearly through the cramped quarters. "First notice," said the Irishman. "Get your kit."
The two snapped on respiratorsтАФCallista, of course, has an atmosphere, unbreathable but inert; you
don't need a space suit, but you do need oxygenтАФtook up their lamps and tools and stepped through
their narrow bulkhead.
They walked in the open around the huge bulk of the ore-ship that was waiting to take a full load of
crude pitchblende from the little mining settlement to Broadstream, six hundred miles away on the curve
of the tiny moon's horizon. There it would be refined into pure radium that was packed into needle-like
interplanetary cruisers, flashed to the stricken Earth.

AT the mouth of the mine by the elevator opening twenty men assembled. Shift B was ready to hop
into the cage on the split second that shift A was out of it. Some laughed at this at firstтАФbut one second
meant a cubic yard of ore that would not be wasted on Earth.
Men staggered from the elevator, grimy and fagged with their killing pace of the past eight hours.
"Get in!" yelled Foley to his crewтАФhe was the foremanтАФand they snapped onto the unsteady platform.
There was a sickening drop that wrenched their stomachs; they snapped on their radium-exciter lamps
and clipped them onto their hats. The greenish glare showed the slick, wet, wooden-shored walls of the