"Pournelle, Jerry - Birth Of Fire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pournelle Jerry)

Erica looked at the map, then pointed. "Take us out into the Basin. Right there."
She pointed at a rise about a kilometer from where we'd hidden Aunt Ellen. It was straight away from the Rim, not in the direction either of the Federation groups had gone. I thought of the tractor with Sarge in it getting away toward Hellastown, and the other two approaching Ice Hill. "Why?"
"Just do it. I'll tell you on the way."
"All right." I started the tractor and began picking a way through the boulder fields. There was no road or track. The map had been made by satellite photograph; I doubt that any human had ever been this way before. "Okay, why?"
"Because it will be in line of sight to Ice Hill. I think. It looks high enough."
"Dust is pretty thick -"
"If we can't get through with the photophone we'll use the radio." -
"All right." I tried for more speed, but there were pits and rocks everywhere, and the dust made it hard to see. When summer comes, the dry ice on one polar cap boils off rather than melting-and blows all the way to the opposite pole. That raises big winds in Hellas. "One good thing," I said. "There's so much dust that they'll never see us out here. We can't be stirring up enough more to matter."
It took a good half hour to make that one kilometer. The hill she'd indicated was a mound about 250 meters high, a big bubble that had formed when Hellas was a lava field a billion years ago. When we reached the top, we were above a lot of the dust storm. I turned the telescope onto the Rim east of us, and searched for Ice Hill.
"There it is," I said. "I can just make out the photophone target."
Not all tractors have talking-light units, but Sarge kept Aunt Ellen better equipped than most Rimrats can afford. The sight was built into our telescope. I trained it onto the white photophone target at the top of Ice Hill, then used the joystick to get a precise adjustment. The system uses a modulated laser beam and has to be aimed just right. The advantage is that nobody can listen in unless they're in the exact line of sight, and you can see along that.
"Ice Hill, Ice Hill, Ice Hill. Mayday. Answer by photophone only. We are on Hill 252, Basin Sector Greeneight. Mayday." Erica said that several times. We waited.
"Sis! That you? I can hardly hear you."
"Perry, get Dad. Quickly."
"What's that?"
"I said get Dad. Now!"
There was a long delay. "The dust is interfering with the beam," Erica said.
"Just be damn glad we can get through at all."
"I am. Have I told you I love you?"
"Not often enough.
"Erica, what is happening? Why have you two left the road? What are you doing in the Basin?"
"Dad, listen!" She managed to cut him off. If we'd been using radio and had to wait for him to say "over" and switch from transmit to receive, we might be there yet.
She told him what had happened at Windhome. "And two tractors full of Federation Marines, with that officer, Bielenson, left Windhome toward Ice Hill an hour ago," she finished.
"So you think they are coming for me?"
"I don't know," I said. "But they blew up Windhome and arrested Sarge."
"It is possible. It even makes sense," Sam said. "With Sarge and myself arrested and our stations ruined as an example to others, the boycott might well collapse. Yes, I think that is what they have in mind. But it is very late in the day. There is barely enough sunlight for them to reach us in time. Perhaps they will wait until morning -"
"Dad, you've got to get away!" Erica said.
"Get away? Run? No, Ricky. If they come to destroy my home, they must take it from me."
I didn't know it then, but that very second marked the beginning of the Martian War of Independence.
We cut off so that Sam could organize his family to fight. As with Windhome there was no way we could help. We couldn't get there; we had barely enough sunlight to get to the road.
"At least you're safe," I said. "Now what can we do? Try to follow the tractor they put Sarge in? They'll have a long start."
"Yes." She wasn't really listening to me. She was looking out at the Rim to the west.
"I suppose we'd better find a good place out of the wind. We'll be out here for the night -"
"Garrett! That's Zeke Terman's station up there!"
"Yeah. And he can see the road. At least we can find out what the cops are doing." I slewed Aunt Ellen around and aimed the telescope. It was much easier this time; we were a lot closer to Zeke's place than we were to Ice Hill.
Erica lifted the mike and went through the calling routine: "Zeke Terman, Zeke Terman, Zeke Terman, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. Answer by photophone only. We are on Hill 252, Sector Greeneight. Mayday." She repeated it three times. We had to give our location, because the transmitting laser must be aimed at the receiver.
Finally we got an answer. "Mayday, this is Terman. What the hell are you doing out there? Who are you?"
"You'll recognize my voice," Erica said. "Are you alone? Are you all right?"
"Why the hell shouldn't I be all right? Of course I'm alone, think I've got crew to take off work and chat on the goddamn phone?"
"Zeke, this is an emergency. Please answer a silly question. It's important that we can be sure you're alone and all right. What does Henrietta call her cat?"
There was a moment of silence. Then Zeke said, "Ricky Hendrix? That you? Henrietta calls the silly animal 'Titwillow' because of something you said. What's going on?"
We told him.
"Son of a bitch! Okay, I'll relay the word down the west Rim. Where did they take Sarge?"
"They put him in a tractor and headed west on the Hellastown road about an hour ago," Erica said.
"Wait one," Zeke told us. He left the mike open, and we heard him shouting. "Bonnie, get the boys up here! Get everybody. Come running!" Then there was silence for a while, and he came back on the line. "Okay, I've got the tractor spotted, I think. Bright yellow?"
"Right!"
"Not makin' very good time with all this dust. They're still a good half hour from Iron Gap. I'll get the boys and be to the Gap before the cops get there. A couple of sticks of 40 percent and they'll not be getting to Hellastown tonight."
"By God!" I said. "We can get Sarge loose!" I took the mike from Erica. "Thanks, Zeke."
"That you, Garrett? Thanks, hell. That's my son-in-law's sponsor those bastards have in that tractor. You want in this fight, you'd better hurry to the Gap!"