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

"We do our best," grated Lynch between set teeth. "It's a damn shame sending us out with a machine like this."
The red book appeared. "Mr. Lynch, I mark you down not for your private sentiments, which are of course yours to
entertain, but for voicing them and thereby contributing to an unhealthy atmosphere of despairing and hysterical
pessimism."
A tide of red crept from Lynch's neck. He bent over the computer, made no comment. But Sutton suddenly cried
out, "What else do you expect from us? We came out here to learn, not to suffer, or to fly on forever!" He gave a
ghastly laugh. Henry Belt listened patiently. "Think of it!" cried Sut-ton. "The seven of us. In this capsule, forever!"
"I am afraid that I must charge you two demerits for your outburst, Mr. Sutton. A good spaceman maintains his
dignity at all costs."
Lynch looked up from the computer. "Well, now we've got a corrected reading. Do you know what it says?" Henry
Belt turned him a look of polite inquiry. "We're going to miss," said Lynch. "We're going to pass by just as we passed
Mars. Jupiter is pulling us around and sending us out toward Gemini."
The silence was thick in the room. Henry Belt turned to look at Culpepper, who was standing by the porthole,
photographing Jupiter with his personal camera.
"Mr. Culpepper?"
"Yes, sir."
"You seem unconcerned by the prospect which Mr. Sut-ton has set forth."
"I hope it's not imminent."
"How do you propose to avoid it?"
"I imagine that we will radio for help, sir."
"You forget that I have destroyed the radio."
"I remember noting a crate marked 'Radio Parts' stored in the starboard jet-pod."
"I am sorry to disillusion you, Mr. Culpepper. That case is mislabeled."
Ostrander jumped to his feet, left the wardroom. There was the sound of moving crates. A moment of silence. Then
he returned. He glared at Henry Belt. "Whiskey, bottles of whiskey."
Henry Belt nodded. "I told you as much."
"But now we have no radio," said Lynch in an ugly voice.

"We never have had a radio, Mr. Lynch. You were warned that you would have to depend on your own resources
to bring us home. You have failed, and in the process doomed me as well as yourself. Incidentally, I must mark you all
down ten demerits for a faulty cargo check."
"Demerits," said Ostrander in a bleak voice.
"Now, Mr. Culpepper," said Henry Belt. "What is your next proposal?"
"I don't know, sir."
Verona spoke in a placatory voice. "What would you do, sir, if you were in our position?"
Henry Belt shook his head. "I am an imaginative man, Mr. Verona, but there are certain leaps of the mind which are
beyond my powers." He returned to his compartment.
Von Gluck looked curiously at Culpepper. "It is a fact. You're not at all concerned."
"Oh, I'm concerned. But I believe that Mr. Belt wants to get home too. He's too good a spaceman not to know
ex-actly what he's doing."
The door from Henry Belt's compartment slid back. Henry Belt stood in the opening. "Mr. Culpepper, I chanced to
overhear your remark, and I now note down ten demerits against you. This attitude expresses a complacence as
dan-gerous as Mr. Sutton's utter funk." He looked about the room. "Pay no heed to Mr. Culpepper. He is wrong. Even
if I could repair this disaster, I would not raise a hand. For I expect to die in space."

7
The sail was canted vectorless, edgewise to the sun. Jupi-ter was a smudge astern. There were five cadets in the
wardroom. Culpepper, Verona, and von Gluck sat talking in low voices. Ostrander and Lynch lay crouched, arms to
knees, faces to the wall. Sutton had gone two days before. Quietly donning his spacesuit he had stepped into the exit
chamber and thrust himself headlong into space. A propul-sion unit gave him added speed, and before any of the