"Allen Steele - Free Beer and the William Casey Society" - читать интересную книгу автора (Steele Allen)

resupplied Olympus Station on a weekly basis. A network of reliable
connections at the Cape, therefore, was already in place. But the stuff
which had been stashed into the OTVs before they were loaded into the
cargo bays of the shuttlesтАФtape players, cassettes, comic books,
Monopoly games, and even the occasional fifth of whiskey or vodkaтАФhad
taken up little room in the OTVs and could be easily hidden from NASA
inspectors. The more the conspiring beamjacks thought about it, the more
they realized that, in order to get enough beer into space for a proper party,
this operation demanded smuggling an unprecedented volume of
contraband into orbit.

тАЬDog-Boy pulled out a calculator and figured it out,тАЭ Bob continued. тАЬA
Mark II shuttleтАЩs OTV had a cargo capacity of 65,000 pounds, which
translated to about 1,000 gallons, water or beer. That was about 444 cases
of 12-ounce cans.тАЭ

He paused and gazed at his empty bottle; I gave Jack the high sign to
bring us another round. It looked as if I was going to have to pump a
thousand gallons of beer into Cowboy Bob to get the story, which was
probably what Bob wanted me to do. But the yarn was getting good and I
wasnтАЩt about to start being cheap. Jack silently put another round in front of
usтАФhe had already deprived Bob of the keys to his JeepтАФand the former
beamjack continued his story.

тАЬOf course, Dog-Boy made that calculation just to give us an idea of
what could be done. тАШOf course thatтАЩs absurd,тАЩ he said. But once he told us
it could be done...тАЭ He laughed, shaking his head.

тАЬYou only had about a hundred people up there,тАЭ I said. тАЬTen gallons
of beer for every crewmember was a little overkill, donтАЩt you think?тАЭ

тАЬYouтАЩre missing the point, Al!тАЭ Bob slapped his hands down on the
bartop. тАЬIt wasnтАЩt a matter of whether everyone had a six-pack or a hundred
gallons. We had just gotten through building a nineteen-square-mile
structure in space. There was nothing we couldnтАЩt do! We were the best
space construction crew there had ever been! So it was...it was like...тАЭ

тАЬA matter of pride.тАЭ

тАЬHell yeah! It wasnтАЩt having beer that mattered. It was getting the
beer, that was the principle. The challenge was the thing.тАЭ He shrugged and
picked up his beer. тАЬSo what the fuck? We decided to do it.тАЭ

****
So the handful of beamjacks involved in the discussionтАФBob, Dog-Boy
and Dog-Girl, Eddie the Gentle Goon, Suffering Fred, a few othersтАФgot to
work in plotting the Free Beer Conspiracy, as it came to be called. There
were quite a few obstacles which had to be crossed, the largest of which
was circumnavigating NASA and Skycorp. But the obstacle which they
didnтАЩt foresee was the William Casey Society, personified aboard Skycan