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




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The eight cadets shared a dormitory, attended classes to-gether, ate at the same table in the mess hall. In various
shops and laboratories they assembled, disassembled and re-assembled computers, pumps, generators,
gyro-platforms, star-trackers, communication gear. "It's not enough to be clever with your hands," said Henry Belt.
"Dexterity is not enough. Resourcefulness, creativity, the ability to make successful improvisationsтАФthese are more
important. We'll test you out." And presently each of the cadets was intro-duced into a room on the floor of which lay
a great heap of mingled housings, wires, flexes, gears, components of a dozen varieties of mechanism. "This is a
twenty-six-hour test," said Henry Belt. "Each of you has an identical set of com-ponents and supplies. There shall be
no exchange of parts or information between you. Those whom I suspect of this fault will be dropped from the class,
without recommenda-tion. What I want you to build is, first, one standard Aminex Mark Nine Computer. Second, a
servo-mechanism to orient a mass ten kilograms toward Mu Hercules. Why Mu Hercules?"
"Because, sir, the solar system moves in the direction of Mu Hercules, and we thereby avoid parallax error.
Negli-gible though it may be, sir."
"The final comment smacks of frivolity, Mr. McGrath, which serves only to distract the attention of those who are
trying to take careful note of my instructions. One demerit."
"Sorry, sir. I merely intended to express my awareness that for many practical purposes such a degree of accuracy
is unnecessary."
"That idea, cadet, is sufficiently elemental that it need not be labored. I appreciate brevity and precision."
"Yes, sir."
"Thirdly, from these materials, assemble a communi-cation system, operating on one hundred watts, which will
permit two-way conversation between Tycho Base and Phobos, at whatever frequency you deem suitable."
The cadets started in identical fashion by sorting the ma-terial into various piles, then calibrating and checking the
test instruments. Achievement thereafter was disparate. Cul-pepper and von Gluck, diagnosing the test as partly one
of mechanical ingenuity and partly ordeal by frustration, failed to become excited when several indispensable
components proved either to be missing or inoperative, and carried each project as far as immediately feasible.
McGrath and Weske, beginning with the computer, were reduced to rage and ran-dom action. Lynch and Sutton
worked doggedly at the computer, Verona at the communication system.
Culpepper alone managed to complete one of the instru-ments, by the process of sawing, polishing and cementing
together sections of two broken crystals into a crude, in-efficient, but operative maser unit.
The day after this test McGrath and Weske disappeared from the dormitory, whether by their own volition or
noti-fication from Henry Belt, no one ever knew.
The test was followed by weekend leave. Cadet Lynch, attending a cocktail party, found himself in conversation
with a Lieutenant-Colonel Trenchard, who shook his head pity-ingly to hear that Lynch was training with Henry Belt.
"I was up with Old Horrors myself. I tell you, it's a miracle we ever got back. Belt was drunk two-thirds of the
voyage."
"How does he escape court-martial?" asked Lynch.

"Very simple. All the top men seem to have trained un-der Henry Belt. Naturally they hate his guts but they all take
a perverse pride in the fact. And maybe they hope that someday a cadet will take him apart."
"Have any ever tried?"
"Oh yes. I took a swing at Henry once. I was lucky to escape with a broken collarbone and two sprained ankles. If
you come back alive, you'll stand a good chance of reaching the top."
The next evening Henry Belt passed the word. "Next Tuesday morning we go up. We'll be gone several months."
On Tuesday morning the cadets took their places in the angel-wagon. Henry Belt presently appeared. The pilot
readied for takeoff.
"Hold your hats. On the count . . ." The projectile thrust against the earth, strained, rose, went streaking up into the
sky. An hour later the pilot pointed. "There's your boat. Old Twenty-Five. And Thirty-Nine right beside it, just in from