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

"I will agree, sir, that anything is possible."
Henry Belt shook his head again. "That is the type of remark, Mr. Ostrander, that I have come to associate with Mr.
Culpepper. A better response would have been, 'In the future, I will try to be ready for any conceivable contin-gency.'
Mr. Sutton, did you make a hissing sound between your teeth?"
"I was breathing, sir."
"Please breathe with less vehemence."
Henry Belt turned away and wandered back and forth about the wardroom, scrutinizing cases, frowning at
smudges on polished metal. Ostrander muttered something to Sutton, and both watched Henry Belt closely as he
moved here and there. Presently Henry Belt lurched toward them. "You show great interest in my movements,
gentlemen."
"We were on the watch for another unlikely contingency, sir."
"Very good, Mr. Ostrander. Stick with it. In space nothing is impossible. I'll vouch for this personally."

4
Henry Belt sent all hands out to remove the paint from the surface of the parabolic reflector. When this had been
accomplished, incident sunlight was now focused upon an expanse of photoelectric cells. The power so generated
was used to operate plasma jets, expelling ions collected by the vast expanse of sail, further accelerating the ship,
thrust-ing it ever out into an orbit of escape. And finally one day, at an exact instant dictated by the computer, the
ship de-parted from Earth and floated tangentially out into space, off at an angle for the orbit of Mars. At an
acceleration of g/100, velocity built up rapidly. Earth dwindled behind; the ship was isolated in space. The cadets'
exhilaration vanished, to be replaced by an almost funereal solemnity. The vision of Earth dwindling and retreating is
an awesome symbol, equivalent to eternal loss, to the act of dying itself. The more impressionable cadetsтАФSutton,
von Gluck, OstranderтАФcould not look astern without finding their eyes swimming with tears. Even the suave
Culpepper was awed by the magnifi-cence of the spectacle, the sun an aching pit not to be toler-ated, Earth a plump
pearl rolling on black velvet among a myriad glittering diamonds. And away from Earth, away from the sun, opened
 an exalted magnificence of another order entirely. For the first time the cadets became dimly aware that Henry Belt had
spoken truly of strange visions. Here was death, here was peace, solitude, star-blazing beauty which promised not
oblivion in death, but eternity. . . . Streams and spatters of stars. . . . The familiar constella-tion, the stars with their
prideful names presenting them-selves like heroes: Achernar, Fomalhaut, Sadal, Suud, Canopus. . .
Sutton could not bear to look into the sky. "It's not that I feel fear," he told von Gluck, "or yes, perhaps it is fear. It
sucks at me, draws me out there. ... I suppose in due course I'll become accustomed to it."
"I'm not so sure," said von Gluck. "I wouldn't be sur-prised if space could become a psychological addiction, a
needтАФso that whenever you walked on Earth you felt hot and breathless."

Life settled into a routine. Henry Belt no longer seemed a man, but a capricious aspect of nature, like storm or
lightning; and like some natural cataclysm, Henry Belt showed no fa-voritism, nor forgave one jot or tittle of offense.
Apart from the private cubicles no place on the ship escaped his attention. Always he reeked of whiskey, and it
became a matter of covert speculation as to exactly how much whiskey he had brought aboard. But no matter how he
reeked or how he swayed on his feet, his eyes remained clever and steady, and he spoke without slurring in his
paradoxically clear sweet voice.
One day he seemed slightly drunker than usual, and or-dered all hands into spacesuits and out to inspect the sail
for meteoric puncture. The order seemed sufficiently odd that the cadets stared at him in disbelief. "Gentlemen, you
hesitate, you fail to exert yourselves, you luxuriate in sloth. Do you fancy yourselves at the Riviera? Into the
spacesuits, on the double, and everybody into space. Check hoop, sail, reflector, struts and sensor. You will be adrift
for two hours. When you return I want a comprehensive report. Mr. Lynch, I believe you are in charge of this watch.
You will present the report."
"Yes, sir."
"One more matter. You will notice that the sail is slightly bellied by the continual radiation pressure. It therefore
acts as a focusing device, the focal point presumably occurring behind the cab. But this is not a matter to be taken for
granted. I have seen a man burned to death in such a freak accident. Bear this in mind."