"Allen Steele - Orbital Decay" - читать интересную книгу автора (Steele Allen)

Soviet subs near the Dominican Republic. Besides, it was early summer
down there, not exactly hurricane season yet. But there was no sense
in irritating the bogus meteorologists with those notions. He noticed
that the Muzak had not penetrated the sanctum of the weather station.

Apparently John, Dave, and Bob, with their exalted government status,
had escaped Cap'n Wallace's means of improving crew efficiency and
morale.

"Try it anyway, please," Hooker prodded. "I won't stay long. Dave
shrugged and tapped instructions into the telescope's range finder.

Watching the TV screen, Hooker saw the Earth leap toward him, the
thousands of miles peeling away as if he were sitting on an
accelerating rocket hurtling down the gravity well. He stopped four
hundred miles above the ground. Patchy clouds filled the screen,
indistinct at first but becoming more defined as Dave adjusted the
focus. Through breaks in the shroud he could see brown and green edged
by sapphire blue. Dave checked a computer simulation on a smaller
screen beside them. "We're over Louisiana right now," he told

file:///J|/sci-fi/Nieuwe%20map/Allen%20Steele%20-%20Orbital%20Decay.txt (12 of 342)17-2-2006 3:02:39
 file:///J|/sci-fi/Nieuwe%20map/Allen%20Steele%20-%20Orbital%20Decay.txt

Popeye.

He sniffed the cool, conditioned air. "Mmm-mmmmh! Can't you just
smell that Cajun cooking!" he said theatrically, trying to imitate a
deep southern drawl with his New England accent.

"Never could stand coon-ass country myself," Bob said from his console
across the compartment. "The girls are nice, but some of those redneck
types there . . ."

"Hang on, Popeye," Dave said, noticing the beamjack's restless
fidgeting.

"Lemme just recalibrate the . . ." His fingers danced across the
glowing keys as he watched the computer simulation. "Ah, there we
go."

The screen blurred as the scene shifted to the right and closed in,
tracking across the southern her of states as it simultaneously zoomed
in. Earth spiraled around, 22,300 miles away; from this part of
Olympus it looked as if the planet were constantly in a slow
tailspin.

The telescope's computer corrected this illusion caused by Skycan's own
revolution, giving observers a steady picture of the surface that
didn't induce vertigo.