"Allen Steele - Glorious Destiny" - читать интересную книгу автора (Steele Allen)

former rank, and then only out of habit.
There's a child among them: Marie Montero, almost nine. No doubt there's other
kids inside, but she's always been shy, preferring the company of Tom and Kim, her
adoptive parents. It seems as if ages have passed since Tom was Alabama's First
Officer and Kim was a Liberty Party loyalist who had to be held at gunpoint while the
ship was being stolen from Highgate; now they're married, and the bulge beneath
Kim's parka shows that it won't be much longer before they add another member to
their family.
"Looked at it lately, Mr. Mayor?" This from Jack Dreyfus, standing on the other
side of the barrel. "We're trying to figure it out."
"Looks like a horn!" Marie proclaims. "A big friggin' horn!"
"Marie! Language!" Kim gives the child an admonishing glare, then looks at
Tom. "She's spending too much time with grownups. Look what she's picking up."
"Yup," Tom mutters, "helluva shame." Chuckles from all around, but Lee barely
hears this as he gazes up at the sky. The comet's tail is very long now, stretching
almost halfway to the edge of Bear's rings as the giant planet slowly rises above the
horizon. Yet it doesn't taper down to a point, the way a comet's tail normally would,
but fans outward instead, forming an elongated cone as seen from profile. Beautiful,
yet discomforting in its strangeness.
"Y'know, she's right," Jack says. "Kind of looks like a trumpet." He grins.
"Gabriel's Trumpet. Good name, kid."
Marie blushes, hides behind Tom. "Beats hell out of me." Henry murmurs.
"Sorry, guys, but I can't figure this one out."
"What do you mean?" Lee asks. Before he turned to farming, Henry Johnson was
an astrophysicist. If anyone here should be an expert on comets, it would be him.
"Well, for one thing, the tail's going in the wrong direction." He points to the
comet. "Shouldn't be doing that. Solar wind from Uma would be blowing dust off the
nucleus, sure, but away from the sun, not toward it. And spreading it out like that...?"
He shakes his head. "Might happen if the dust is being deflected by Bear's
magnetosphere...but if that's the case, then it's a lot closer than we think."
"It's not going to hit us, is it?" Kim's voice is low, concerned.
"Oh, I doubt that. Bear's gravity will probably pull it in long before it comes
close enough to be any sort of threat. One of the benefits of having a gas giant for a
neighbor...sort of a huge vacuum sweeper for comets and rogue asteroids." Henry
gives the others a reassuring smile. "Don't worry. We're just going to have a light
show for another week or so."
The group laughs, albeit nervously, and shuffles their feet in the snow. "Well,
have fun," Lee says, and ruffles Marie's hair as he walks past. "Don't stay out too
long, or you'll catch cold." The little girl favors him with the salute that she's seen her
guardians and other former crewmen give him on occasion. Lee dutifully responds in
kind; even after nearly four Earth years on Coyote, he's still regarded as captain by
most people. He supposes he should be honored, although he prefers to think of
himself as an elected public official rather than a commanding officer.
 He opens the heavy front door, steps into the foyer, takes a minute to remove his
parka and hang it next to the other coats and jackets. Warm air rushes across his face
as he opens the inside door; someone has stoked a fire in the wood stove, and the
meeting hall is nice and toasty. The grange has become the center of Liberty's social
life, particularly during the long months of winter. There's probably a dozen or so
people hanging out at Lew's Cantina; every so often Lee will spend an evening there
himself, but generally he prefers the more placid ambiance of the grange. Chairs have