"Theodore Sturgeon - Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sturgeon Theodore)

heads PDQ. And hang 'em on the mike."

"Aye-aye, sir."

"I heard what you said," said Parker, "but what did you say?"

"Told him to go under the ice, set our detectors to operate at anything 200 feet over us or 400 feet
under, and use them to operate the mikeтАФ'Iron Mike,' that isтАФpet name for automatic pilot. She'll
run herself now until she encounters something she can't handle. She'll think it over for a couple of
millionths of a second and then yell."

"This must've costтАФ"

But this time the Captain only smiled at him.

"Doctor... gentlemen... would you like to go on with the tour?"

They moved aft. The captain murmured into a grille that he was leaving the bridge, and joined the
group. They crossed the wardroom, rounded the TV bulkhead and went aft down the central
corridor. The Admiral, in the lead, turned to a door on the starboard side and opened it. "Watch your
step," he cautioned, and went in. His warning was useful for on the other side of the usual shin-
hungry high sill was a steep flight of steps, virtually a ladder, which twisted downwards into
greenish dimness.

Blinking, they found themselves in a cavernous chamber, standing on a steel catwalk which ran
about six feet over what at first seemed to be a shiny floor but which, as their eyes adjusted, they
were able to see was water, because there was a man on it, about chest deep, wearing a rubber suit
and walking slowly. "Hey, Lu!" barked the Admiral.

"Lu?" echoed Admiral B.J. Crawford. "That's notтАФthat wouldn't be old Lucius? Lucius Emery?"

"Well, B.J., goddam!" cried the man in the tank. "Beg pardon, ma'am. Didn't see you."

"Think nothing of it," said Dr. Hiller calmly.

"Dr. Hiller, Commander Lucius Emery," said Nelson. "When better ichthyologists are built, they
won't find the likes of old Lu. Come on up and shake everybody's hand, Lu."

"Can't," said the man in the tank. "You wouldn't want my buddy here to drown, would you?"

Dr. Hiller bent over the catwalk rail and peered. "What's he doing?" she whispered to the captain.

"Walking a shark," he replied.


file:///C|/3226%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...ge%20to%20the%20Bottom%20of%20the%20Sea.htm (7 of 134) [1/3/2005 12:22:09 AM]
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea by Theodore Sturgeon

"Oh," she said. She concentrated, and as the man passed under the catwalk, they could make out the
dark shape he propelled through the water, the tall dorsal fin like the sail of a good-sized toy boat... it