"James Tiptree Jr. - Beam Us Home" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tiptree James Jr)

"Yes. But I opted for the astronaut program. The Air Force is the only way you can get in. And I've been
accepted."

"But the astronaut program has been suspended. Temporarily, of course. Meanwhile, the Air ForceтАФfor
which you volunteeredтАФhas an active requirement for your training. You can't expect them just to let you
sit around until the program resumes, can you? Moreover, you have been given the very best option
available. Good God, man, the Volunteer Airpeace Corps is considered a superelite. You should see the
fugal depressions we have to cope with among men who have been rejected for the VAC."

"Mercenaries," said Hobie. "Regressive."

"Try 'professional,' it's a better word. NowтАФabout those headaches."

The headaches eased up some when Hobie was assigned to long-range sensor recon support. He
enjoyed the work of flying, and the long, calm, lonely sensor missions were soothing. They were also
quite safe. The Gu├йvarristas had no air strength to waste on recon planes and the U.A.R. SAM sites
were not yet operational. Hobie flew the pattern, and waited zombielike for the weather, and flew again.
Mostly he waited, because the fighting was developing in a steamy jungle province where clear sensing
was a sometimes thing. It was poorly mapped. The ground troops could never be sure about the little
brown square men who gave them so much trouble; on one side of an unknown line they were
Gu├йvarristas who should be obliterated, and on the other side they were legitimate national troops
warning the blancos away. Hobie's recon tapes were urgently needed, and for several weeks he was left
alone.

Then he began to get pulled up to a forward strip for one-day chopper duty when their tactical duty
roster was disrupted by gee-gee. But this was relatively peaceful too, being mostly defoliant spray
missions. Hobie, in fact, put in several months without seeing, hearing, smelling, or feeling the war at all.
He would have been grateful for this if he had realized it. As it was, he seemed to be trying not to realize
anything much. He spoke very little, did his work, and moved like a man whose head might fall off if he
jostled anything.

Naturally he was one of the last to hear the rumors about gee-gee when they filtered back to the coastal
base where Hobie was quartered with the long-range stuff. Gee-gee's proper name was Guairas Grippe.
It was developing into a severe problem in the combat zone. More and more replacements and relief
crews were being called forward for temporary tactical duty. On Hobie's next trip in, he couldn't help but
notice that people were acting pretty haggard and the roster was all scrawled up with changes. When
they were on course, he asked about it.

"Are you kidding?" his gunner grunted.

"No. What is it?"

"B.W."

"What?"

"Bacteriological weapon, skyhead. They keep promising us vaccines. Stuck in their zippersтАФlook out,
there's a ground burst."
They held Hobie up front for another mission, and another after that, and then they told him that a sector
quarantine was now in force.