"Theodore Sturgeon - Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sturgeon Theodore) to the signet ring on his left, a mannerism he had watched for ever since he was a boot at Annapolis
and Nelson headed the Science Department; it meant he was annoyed. Fair enough. Chest-tones and the safety of a studio four thousand miles away did not qualify a guy with marcelled hair to call the likes of Nelson an oddball. Now, Crane thought, comes the dessert. It's time for a seductive portrait of Dr. Susan Hiller, some arch remarks about how high this brilliant woman had risen in the ranks of medicine and psychiatry, and how extraordinary that she should yet be so beautifulтАФand why the hell not, thought Crane in irritation: when would the beautiful-but-dumb, brilliant-but-dowdy legend curl up and die? Could it be that most of the world wanted it alive, and if so, why? And in addition, Crane predicted, there would be a polite joke (masking some not only impolite, but downright disgusting implications) about Dr. Hiller's being the only woman aboard (which she wasn't). "So," said the commentator, "Bon voyage, Admiral Nelson... his crew, and their illustrious visitors Congressman Parker and Admiral Crawford. We will hear nothing of them while they are submerged, of course, for however many hours, days or even weeks the tests take. They will likewise hear nothing from us; therefore, if they are listening to me now, I'd like to speak for all the world, its people, its scientists, young and old, knowing that they share my admiration. High ideals, high courage, and high adventure are their lot, though they find them in a voyage to the bottom of the sea." He glanced down and up, wet his careful lips, and began, "In other news around the world, a dispatchтАФ" Captain Crane made a slight motion with his finger and Sparks, standing in the door of the radio Everyone breathed as if breathing had been forgotten for a while, everyone found that there was after all a glass in hand, everyone drank. Nelson rumbledтАФself-consciously because all his life he had been doing more important things than learning the formalitiesтАФ"Well, gentlemen... Doctor... modesty forbids me adding anything to that." "Chivalry," said a smooth baritone on the port side, "suggests a sorry omission." It was "Chip" Morton, Crane's Executive Officer. Classmates, roommates at the Academy, they had entered the submarine service together and come all the way. It was no one's faultтАФcertainly not Lee Crane'sтАФthat they had proceeded single file, with Chip in the rear. Chip's tone just now was as glossy as his sharply trimmed black hair. He leaned toward Dr. Hiller and said, "He never even mentioned Dr. Hiller." "By her wish and my specific request," said old "B.J."тАФ Admiral B.J. Crawford, head of the Bureau of Marine Exploration, an old turtleback who, they said, bit the heads off three ensigns each day file:///C|/3226%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...ge%20to%20the%20Bottom%20of%20the%20Sea.htm (3 of 134) [1/3/2005 12:22:09 AM] Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea by Theodore Sturgeon before breakfast. "I've had quite all the publicity I could possibly want," said the doctor in a well-modulated contralto. "In this special case, I'm here to observe men under stress, to compare their reactions with men in other vessels differently equipped. It's a job that's best done quietly." |
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