"Tom Purdom - Fossil Games" - читать интересную книгу автора (Purdom Tom)

actually somewhat higher than hers in certain areas.
The foundation of the EruLabi ethos was a revolt against genetic
enhancement. In the view of the EruLabi "mentors", the endless quest for
intellectual and physical improvement was a folly. Life was supposed to be
lived for its own sake, the EruLabi texts declared. Every moment was a gift
that should be treasured for the pleasure it brought, not an episode in a
quest for mental and physical perfection. The simplest pleasures-- touches,
languor, the textures of bodies pressed together-- were, to the EruLabi, some
of the most profound experiences life had to offer.
One of the most important texts in the EruLabi rituals was the words, in
ancient Greek, that the Eudoran king had spoken to Odysseus: Dear to us ever
are the banquet and the harp and the dance and the warm bath and changes of
raiment and love and sleep.

****

The Island of Adventure had pointed itself at 82 Eridani-- a Sol-type
star twenty-one light years from the Solar System. 82 Eridani was an obvious
candidate for a life-bearing planet. A fly-by probe had been launched at 82
Eridani in 2085-- one hundred and eighteen years before Morgan and his fellow
emigrants had left their home system. In 2304-- just after they had celebrated
the first century of their departure-- the Island of Adventure intercepted a
message the probe was sending back to the Solar System.
It was the beginning of several years of gloomy debate. The probe had
found planets. But none of them looked any more interesting than the cratered
rocks and giant iceballs mankind had perused in the Solar System.
The third planet from the sun could have been another Earth. It was
closer to its sun than Earth was but it could have supported life if it had
been the right size. Unfortunately, the planet's mass was only thirty-eight
percent the mass of Earth.
Theorists had calculated that a planet needed a mass about forty percent
the mass of Earth if it was going to develop an oxygen-rich atmosphere and
hold it indefinitely. The third planet was apparently just a little too small.
The images transmitted by the probe were drearily familiar-- a rocky, airless
desert, some grandiose canyons and volcanoes, and the usual assortment of
craters, dunes, and minor geological features.
The Island of Adventure had set out for 82 Eridani because 82E was a star
of the same mass and spectral type as Sol. The second choice had been another
star in the same constellation. Rho Eridani was a double star 21.3 light years
from the Solar System. The two stars in the Rho system orbited each other at a
promising distance-- seven light hours. With that much separation between
them, the theoreticians agreed, both stars could have planets.
When you looked at the sky from the Solar System, Rho was a few degrees
to the left of 82 Eridani. The Island of Adventure was a massive, underpowered
rock but it could make a small midcourse correction if its inhabitants wanted
to expend some extra reaction mass.

****

The strongest opposition to the course change came from the oldest human