"E. E. Doc Smith - Lensman 7 - Masters Of The Vortex" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

'QXтАФthat'd be better. Two, then, instead of three. Four point nine eight zero and thirteen point nine four zero. You might
break out a jar of burn-dressing, too; some fairly warm stuff is leaking through.'
тАвWill do. Come down, fast!'
Cloud landed. He stripped to the skin and his friends smeared him with the thick, gooey stuff that was not only added
protection against radiation, but also a sovereign remedy for new burns. He exchanged his goggles for a heavier, darker
pair. The two bombs arrived and were substituted for two of the original load.
'I thought of something while I was up there,' Cloud said then. 'Fourteen kilograms of duodec is nobody's firecracker, but it
may be the least of what's going to go off. Have you got any idea of what's going to become of the intrinsic energy of the
vortex when I snuff it?'
'Can't say I have.' The Lensman frowned in thought. 'No data.'
'Neither have I. But I'd say you'd better go back to the new stationтАФthe one you were going to move to if it kept on getting
worse. The clocks are ticking there, aren't they?'
'Yes. It might be the smart thing to doтАФjust in case.'
Again in air, Cloud found that the activity, while still very high, was not too high for his heaviest bomb, but that it was
fluctuating too rapidly. He could not get even five seconds of trustworthy prediction, to say nothing of ten. So he waited, as
close to the horrible center of disintegration as he dared.
The flitter hung poised in air, motionless, upon softly hissing under-jets. Cloud knew to a fraction his height above the
ground. He knew to a fraction his distance from the vortex. He knew the density of the atmosphere and the velocity and
direction of the wind. Hence, since he could also read, closely enough, the momentary variations in the cyclonic storms
within the crater, he could compute very easily the course and velocity necessary to land the bomb in the exact center of
the vortex at any given instant of time. The hard partтАФthe thing that no one had as yet succeeded in doingтАФwas to predict,
for a time far enough ahead to be of any use, a usably close approximation to the vortex's quantitative activity.
Therefore Cloud concentrated upon the dials and gauges in front of him; concentrated with every fiber of his being and
with every cell of his brain.
Suddenly, almost imperceptably, the sigma curve gave signs of flattening out. Cloud's mind pounced. Simultaneous
differential equations; nine of them. A quadruple integration in four dimensions. No matterтАФCloud did not solve problems
laboriously, one operation at a time. Without knowing how he had arrived at it, he knew the answer; just as the Posenian or
the Rigellian can perceive every separate component particle of an opaque, three dimensional solid, but without being able
to explain to any Tellurian how his sense of perception works. It just is, that's all.
By virtue of whatever sense or ability it is which makes a mathematical prodigy what he is, Cloud knew that in exactly
seven and three-tenths seconds from that observed instant the activity of the vortex would match precisely the rating of his
heaviest bomb. Another flick of his mental switch and he knew exactly the velocity he would require. His hand swent over
the studs, his right foot tramped down hard upon the firing pedal; and, even as the quivering flitter rammed forward under
five Tellurian gravities of acceleration, he knew to the thousandth of a second how long he would have to hold that
acceleration to attain that velocity. While not really longтАФin secondsтАФit was much too long for comfort. It would take
him much closer to the vortex than he wanted to be, in fact, it would take him almost to the crater's rim.
But he stuck to the calculated course, and at the precisely correct instant he released his largest bomb and cut his dive.
Then, in a continuation of the same motion, his hand slashed down through the beam of light whose cutting would activate
the Bergenholm and make the vessel inertialessтАФsafe from any form whatever of physical violence. For an instant nothing
happened, and for that instant Cloud sat appalled. Neutralization of inertia took time! Not that he had ever been told that it
was instantaneousтАФhe had just assumed so. He had never noticed any time-lapse before, but now it seemed to be taking
forever!
After that one instant of shocked inaction he went into ultra-speed action; kicking in the little vessel's all-out eight-G drive
and whirling her around as only a flitter or a speedster can whirl; only to see in his plate the vortex opening up like a bell-
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flower, or like a sun going nova.
Cloud's forebodings were more than materialized then for it was not only the bomb that was going off. The staggeringly
immense energy of the vortex was merging with that of the detonating duodec to form an utterly indescribable explosion.
In part the flood of incandescent lava in the pit was beaten downward by the sheer, stupendous force of the blow; in part it