"Bruce Holland Rogers - Big Far Now" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rogers Bruce Holland)

monotony. There was nothing exciting, nothing hopeful in the mineral profile of the planet's surface. We
were a little glum, because the word was out from Susan Suhl's group that the biota of Veloz wasn't
going to make us rich anytime soon, and so it was more important than ever that we find an exploitable
mineral deposit. But we couldn't just will a promising deposit into existence, and the survey was almost
complete.
Then one afternoon, while my chief assistant, Fom Mah, and I played chess and only half-listened to
the computer's voice, the machine started to sing out the mineral profile for the region under Mount
Meeker:
"...Gallium, point-oh-five...."
Had the computer said Gallium? I got up to check the screen.
"....Mercury, point-oh-seven...."
Mercury on Veloz? In that high a concentration?
"...Chromium, two-point-six...."
Chromium! Now there was something we could use!
"...Platinum, point-oh-nine...."
The sensors were malfunctioning. That had to be it. As more unlikely metal concentrations kept
coming from the computer's voice, we started to order a new test for another nearby region, one that we
were sure of, to recalibrate the satellite. We transmitted a signal that reset the satellite orbit so that it
would pass over Mount Meeker again.
We played chess and waited nearly three hours for the next satellite pass. It had to be a calibration
slip, I thought, but I also thought that maybe, just maybe the readings were accurate. Then we heard the
computer's bell-like voice again: "Sector Aleph Aleph, two by forty-seven, second reading.... Gallium,
point-oh-five.... Mercury, point-oh-seven.... Chromium, two-point-six...." One metal after another, on
and on.
I looked at Fom. He looked at me. It didn't make a lot of geochemical sense, but there it was. We
started to laugh. The colony was rich!
News spread fast. Technically, we were supposed to hold a meeting of all colonists to determine what
course of economic development the colony would take once all of us had finished our research, but the
minerals report made it seem like only one choice was possible, even before we had heard from Suhl or
the others.
Suddenly we were refitting equipment for mining and building a road to Mount Meeker. It just started
happening, and everyone seemed relieved.
Everyone, that is, except Joanna.
She burst into my hut out of the rain one morning, soaked and mad. "What the hell do you people
think you're doing?" she demanded.
I managed to say something impressive like, "Huh?"
She was so angry, it took her a moment to find her words. "I come back from the Shies to get
resupplied," she said at last, "and on my way, I hear particle cutters shrieking."
Shrieking was a good word for it. The cutters used sound to maintain a vacuum around the particle
beam. We had all been wincing at that high-pitched peal since the road clearing had begun just outside
the camp. Even at a distance, the sound was grating.
"So just outside of camp, I run into a road-clearing operation. I ask around, and I find out the colony's
going to mine Mount Meeker." She shook her head, raining droplets of water. "Mount Meeker!" She
glowered at me. "The road crew said it was on your recommendation!"
"Joanna, slow down a little," I said.
"You want me to slow down? Slow down your damn road crew, then. They're felling trees with
particle cutters like there's some kind of race to get to the mountain. We have five years to make a profit,
David. Five years!"
"Would you please tell me why this is such a big deal?" I said.
"I'd have told everyone, if you had given me a chance. Why didn't someone come get me for the