"Jack Vance - Sail 25" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

cant sail to swing us around the area."
"You may do this; then join the rest in hull-and-sail in-spection."
"Yes, sir."

The cadets donned spacesuits, Sutton with the utmost re-luctance. Out into the dark void they went, and now here
was loneliness indeed.
When they returned, Henry Belt had returned to his com-partment.
"As Mr. Belt points out, we have no great choice," said Ostrander. "We missed Mars, so let's hit Jupiter. Luckily
it's in good positionтАФotherwise we'd have to swing out to Sa-turn or UranusтАФ"
"They're off behind the sun," said Lynch. "Jupiter's our last chance."
"Let's do it right then. I say, let's make one last attempt to set those confounded bearings. . . ."
But now it seemed as if the wobble and twist had been eliminated. The disks tracked perfectly, the accuracy monitor
glowed green.
"Great!" yelled Lynch. "Feed it the dope. Let's get going! All sail for Jupiter. Good Lord, but we're having a trip!"
"Wait till it's over," said Sutton. Since his return from sail inspection he had stood to one side, cheeks pinched,
eyes staring.
"It's not over yet. And maybe it's not meant to be." The other five pretended not to have heard him. The computer
spat out figures and angles. There was a billion miles to travel. Acceleration was less, due to the diminution in the
intensity of sunlight. At least a month must pass before Jupiter came close.

6
The ship, great sail spread to the fading sunlight, fled like a ghostтАФout, always out. Each of the cadets had quietly
per-formed the same calculation, and arrived at the same re-sult. If the swing around Jupiter were not performed with
exactitude, if the ship were not slung back like a stone on a string, there was nothing beyond. Saturn, Uranus,
Neptune, Pluto were far around the sun; the ship, speeding at a hun-dred miles a second, could not be halted by the
waning gravity of the sun, nor yet sufficiently accelerated in a con-centric direction by sail and jet into a true orbit.
The very nature of the sail made it useless as a brake; always the thrust was outward. Within the hull seven men lived
and thought, and the psychic relationship worked and stirred like yeast in a vat of decaying fruit. The fundamental
similarity, the human identity of the seven men, was utterly canceled; apparent only were the disparities. Each cadet
appeared to others only as a walking characteristic, and Henry Belt was an incomprehensible Thing, who appeared
from his com-partment at unpredictable times, to move quietly here and there with the blind blank grin of an archaic
Attic hero.
Jupiter loomed and bulked. The ship, at last within reach of the Jovian gravity, sidled over to meet it. The cadets
gave ever more careful attention to the computer, checking and counter-checking the instructions. Verona was the
most assiduous at this, Sutton the most harassed and ineffectual. Lynch growled and cursed and sweat: Ostrander
complained in a thin peevish voice. Von Gluck worked with the calm of pessimistic fatalism; Culpepper seemed
unconcerned, al-most debonair, a blandness which bewildered Ostrander, in-furiated Lynch, awoke a malignant hate in
Sutton. Verona and von Gluck on the other hand seemed to derive strength and refreshment from Culpepper's placid
acceptance of the situation. Henry Belt said nothing. Occasionally he emerged from his compartment, to survey the
wardroom and the ca-dets with the detached interest of a visitor to an asylum.
It was Lynch who made the discovery. He signaled it with an odd growl of sheer dismay, which brought a resonant
questioning sound from Sutton, "My God, my God," mut-tered Lynch.
Verona was at his side. "What's the trouble?" "Look. This gear. When we replaced the disks we de-phased the whole
apparatus one notch. This white dot and this other white dot should synchronize. They're one sproc-ket apart. All the
results would check and be consistent be-cause they'd all be off by the same factor."
Verona sprang into action. Off came the housing, off came various components. Gently he lifted the gear, set it
back into correct alignment. The other cadets leaned over him as he worked, except Culpepper, who was chief of the
watch.
Henry Belt appeared. "You gentlemen are certainly dili-gent in your navigation," he said presently. "Perfectionists
almost."