"Bud Sparhawk - Childish Things" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sparhawk Bud)

Although he heard his father's words and understood what he thought he was saying, Freddy could not
accept that his parents were actually going to destroy his life like this. Without any consultation at all
they were going to move the family clear across the country to live in some place where he knew
absolutely nobody! It had been hard enough going to the new middle school and having to adapt to a
new environment. But that had been made easier because all of his old friends were with him. Well,
most of them anyhow. Jim and Sammy wouldn't be coming to the middle school until next year,
although, now that the school year was nearly done that didn't seem to matter much: For some reason he
couldn't define Jim and Sammy weren't as close friends as they had been.

Then there was Gwendolyn, the love of his life, the most beautiful girl in the world. All year he had
admired her from his seat in the second row of the math class they both shared. She sat four seats ahead
on the next row, where he could watch her as the dull teacher droned on and on about the dumbest
things, as if anybody had a problem understanding Algebra I. For months he had watched her as she
came in and wiggled into her seat, tossed her hair, and glanced around. He always made sure that he was
looking elsewhere least she catch him observing her and embarrass them both. Only on the rarest of
occasions would he dare to speak to her; a mumbled тАЬmorninтАЩ,тАЭ or shy тАЬhello".

But in the last week she had smiled at him, twice, during class. And she had even made a smart remark
as she and her friends walked by him and his friends in the hall. Could it be that she was actually
acknowledging his existence?

But any future relationship with Gwendolyn was going to be dashed by this sudden change of plans for
his future. How could his parents do this to him? How could they be so cruel?

****

The stars faded to black as the engines smoothly cut in and the ship started its transition phase. An hour
later the universe returned and strange new constellations shone through the view ports. тАЬSee if you can
find the navigation points,тАЭ Captain Alice Ching said quietly. This first trip out of the solar system was a
risk for all of the crew. Only if they could find three of the Cepheid variables did they have any chance
of figuring out where they had come out.

The star drive they had built using the plans in the Message, as the transmission from the stars had come
to be known, lacked any underlying principles. It was a pure engineering discipline, untouched by
theory. As such they had no way of calibrating the effects of the controls save trial and error. They had
used the nominal settings on every control, oriented the ship toward Alpha Centauri and goosed the
power until it phased.

тАЬWe found three that match those in the database,тАЭ Thigby said from the navigational console.
тАЬTriangulation says we came, Holy Mother of God, two hundred light years!тАЭ There was a moment of
stunned silence as the implications hit them. When news of this got back to Earth the planets would be
forgotten: Who would want to continue to struggle to coax desiccated Mars and the other solar family to

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life when the bounty of the endless stars were there for the taking?

****