"Jerry Pournelle - High Justice" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pournelle Jerry)

provide. ..."
He was interrupted by Courtney and Samual bursting into the meeting. Adams frowned as the Tongan
technician squatted respectfully before his prince. They chattered in Tongan while Adams looked on
puzzled and Courtney tried to look casual, although she was obviously bursting.
Toki's grin was reassuring. "Dr. Martinez sends a message which won't wait, Mr. Adams. You are to
congratulate Mr. Lewis and tell him he is the father of a three-ton baby girl. ..."

Power to the People

Terrazo scratched in the sterile sand, muttering curses to the older gods before quickly thinking
better of that and crossing himself. The Umfundis had warned him about that, and now that his body
was lost to this awful place, he must be even more careful of his soul. He dug out furrows and
planted seeds, muttering again. Nothing would grow here in the Namib Desert! Even Father George,
who was a saint, could not pray up enough rain, and the land was barren, the white men must know
that. . . .
It had been bad enough in Walvis Bay, where Father George had his last mission. But now to be sent
here, hundreds of miles from any town, where there were no people, only a corrugated iron and
fiberglass church and rows of prefabricated barracks with no one in them-it was more than he could
bear. When he had first been given the job as sexton to Father George, he had been proud. It was a
good position, there would always be enough to eat. But the Umfundis had been sane then. Now he
was quite obviously mad, to bring Terrazo into this desert where there was no water and never
would be. ...
He finished the vegetable garden Father had told him to plant behind the church. "There will be
water, Terrazo," Father had told him. Terrazo shook his head and went inside the church building.
Dry baked heat tore at his lungs. Even Christ Himself must suffer in this! He genuflected to the
altar, decided to let the dust stay in the pews until night although usually he polished
everything at least once a day. The Lord would understand.
Outside again he looked across at the sea, waves pounding ceaselessly against the sandy beach. A
cooler breeze sprang up and Terrazo stood gratefully in the shade of the church. A glint from the
sea caught his eye and he looked out toward the horizon. . . . Something seemed to be out there,
something bright and much too big. He shook his head. The heat could do that to a man.
Deliberately he looked away, squinted across barren sands toward the mountains fifty miles inland.
There was iron there, and lead, Father George had said, and men would mine it and send it here to
the shore to be smelted and worked. And there would be farms here, and houses, a whole city.
Terrazo shook his head again, the whites were mad, no one could ever live in the Namib, and who
would want to if they could? But he was sexton to Father George, and he would show he was worthy
of his post. Perhaps some day he could persuade Father to go back to Walvis Bay, where there were
people to come to his church.
The glitter caught his eye again. It was closer now. Terrazo stared unbelievingly, crossed
himself, and ran to the tiny parsonage fifty yards from the church, ran in terror, screaming,
"Father, Father, come quickly, Father, there is a mountain coming across the sea!"
Captain Rollo Anderson was paying careful attention to his charts. Hrelsvelgor IV was nearing her
final anchorage and had to be placed just right. He glanced at the speed indicators, nodded, and
turned to the mate. "Signal 'Finished with Engines'," he commanded. "And tell the reactor boys
they better secure for earthquake. She'll come to ground in an hour."
"Aye aye, skipper. I'll signal the tug, shall I?"
"Right, although I expect they know. But I want them standing by just in case the current's
different from what I thought. We'll want to place the old girl just right."
Anderson stood in a heated bridge compartment at the forward edge of an iceberg moving at nearly
three knots. It had taken six months to bring the berg from the Antarctic to the African coast,