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

really."
I gestured expansively. "I'm all yours," I said. I felt the heat of the alcohol in my face. "What do you
want me to do?"
"When we met on top of the domewood, you said you wanted life to be different."
 I nodded.
"I do, too. I don't want us to make the kinds of mistakes here that people made on Earth."
I nodded again. My head felt a little loose on my neck.
"We were about to make a big mistake," Joanna said.
"Right. Tell me."
"Tomorrow. But right now I want to know how serious you were about making things different here."
"Dead serious. One hundred percent. Fullthrot." I'd have told her whatever I thought she wanted to
hear. Oh Jojojojo, take me back, I thought. Take me into your arms again.
"Then tomorrow help me out," she said.
I nodded.
"I'm going to make a presentation. I'm going to try to get the colony to approve a delay in the mining, a
delay of two years, say, to investigate other possibilities."
"Two years." I must have been glassy-eyed, but I guess if you've never seen someone drunk before,
you don't notice the symptoms much. Anyway, Joanna didn't say anything if she did notice.
"David, I don't know if I'm going to be convincing, but I'm going to need your support. If you back me
up, any way you can, it will mean a lot. You're the geology expert. If you can express some doubt about
the project and support me a little, it's bound to throw votes my way. Please." Her mouth was red and
wet.
I nodded. "Sure."
"Even if you find my argument unconvincing. Please, David. I'm dealing with something that's part gut
feeling here. That's not going to be enough to convince the colony."
"You got it, Jo. Whatever you want. Fullthrot. Your eyes are pretty, you know?"
She gave me a sisterly hug. It was worse than no hug at all. "Thanks, David," she said. "See you
tomorrow."
Then it was just me and the bottle.
***


The meeting was in the Glass House, Meeker's administrative headquarters and the one building big
enough to hold everyone. We had built the frame out of black towertree lumber, and paneled most of the
exterior walls with the translucent inner bark of domewood.
My head was pounding. I wished we had built the Glass House out of something opaque. The light felt
like knife blades at the back of my eyes.
I sat there listening to people talk as they filed in. A few people were a little put off about having the
meeting. After all, what was there to decide? But most of them didn't seem to mind.
The governor came in with the three co-governors. Meeker was wearing his colonial uniform, which
he rarely did. The others hadn't bothered, and wore the same blue togs as the rest of us. Meeker's
sidearm, an old projectile weapon, looked strangely out of place in its holster, a ceremonial relic of
another century.
I noted that even Captain Rhamal had come for this. He and his crew seldom left the Kepler, as
though they liked living in that tin can all the time.
Suddenly the buzz of conversation stopped. Everyone was turning toward the door. I turned.
There in the doorway stood Joanna. Beside her, reaching its furry hand to hers, was a Shy. The animal
was shaking and grinning like a madman. Joanna said a few soft words to it, and the Shy walked into the
room with her.
Nobody said anything as Joanna helped the Shy to climb into a seat near the front of the room. It