"Ringo,.John.-.Honorverse.SS.-.Mitchell,.Victor.-.A.SHIP.NAMED.FRANCIS" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ringo John)

the shape it is, I don't think that's a good idea. We're already as
worked up as any crew I've ever seen."

"We can do them, Sir," the XO protested. "All the crew needs is a
little firm discipline. If you'd just see your way clear to giving me a
free hand . . ."

"We don't have any thumbscrews, Greene," the captain said,
shaking his head. "No, what they need is some down time: a day
off. Bosun!"

"Yes, Sir?" The senior enlisted person on the ship was heavyset,
with thinning hair and a bulbous, red nose that indicated he
probably was in Siberia for the same reason as Doc Kearns.

"Adjust Axial One to a forty-five degree, one gee, gravitational
cone," the captain snapped. He keyed the enunciator and cleared
his throat. "All off duty watch, report to Axial One, and BREAK OUT
THE POTATO SACKS!"



Axial One was a large "tube" running down the spine of the ship.
Normally, it was set to low gravity and used for movement of
personnel and equipment. Under the low G personnel could move
materials quickly and efficiently. Or, alternatively, crewmen who
thought they were "salty" could move like a bat out of hell down the
tube, bounding along under the .2 G field at speeds of up to forty
kilometers per hour or moving huge loads like missiles or pallets of
explosive bolts at only somewhat slower velocities.

Of course, the law of conservation of mass applied, so all those
salty crewmen eventually had to decelerate or dodge other
crewmen who were moving down the corridor at speeds far in
excess of sense. And since the human eye and mind are not
designed to calculate automatically what is "too fast" a closing
speed, quite a few of those crewmen ended up impacting on
some other sailor, or his large and occasionally deadly load,
sometimes at closing speeds that would do for a small air-car
wreck.

Axial One produced about fifteen percent of the total "incidental
casualties" on the ship.

Of course, "speeds in excess of forty kilometers per hour" had
never made it into official reports, even in the Manticoran service. It
would take a real jerk, like Hard-Ass Harrington or somebody, to
report what actually went on in Axial One, but for some strange
reason newer ships didn't have anything like it. Of course, BuShips
said that was because Axial One was a structural danger. On the