"Peter Watts - A Niche" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watts Peter)

rift. That's why things got so big."
"There's a lot of food. Just not very good quality."
A vaguely edible lozenge of sludge oozes from the processor
onto Clarke's plate. She eyes it for a moment. I can relate.
"You're going to eat in your gear?" Ballard asks, as Clarke sits
down at the lounge table.
Clarke blinks at her. "Yeah. Why?"
A Niche 9

"Oh, nothing. It would just be nice to talk to someone with
pupils in their eyes, you know?"
"Sorry. I can take them off if you тАФ"
"No, it's no big thing. I can live with it." Ballard turns off the
library and sits down across from Clarke. "So, how do you like the
place so far?"
Clarke shrugs and keeps eating.
"I'm glad we're only down here for a year," Ballard says. "This
place could get to you after a while."
"It could be worse."
"Oh, I'm not complaining. I was looking for a challenge, after
all. What about you?"
"Me?"
"What brings you down here? What are you looking for?"
Clarke doesn't answer for a moment. "I don't know, really," she
says at last. "Privacy, I guess."
Ballard looks up. Clarke stares back, her face neutral.
"Well, I'll leave you to it, then," Ballard says pleasantly.
Clarke watches her disappear down the corridor. She hears the
sound of a cubby hatch hissing shut.
Give it up, Ballard, she thinks. I'm not the sort of person you
really want to know.

Almost start of the morning shift. The food processor
disgorges Clarke's breakfast with its usual reluctance. Ballard, in
Communications, is just getting off the phone. A moment later she
appears in the hatchway.
"Management saysтАФ" She stops. "You've got blue eyes."
Clarke smiles faintly. "You've seen them before."
"I know. It's just kind of surprising, it's been a while since I've
seen you without your caps in."
Clarke sits down with her breakfast. "So, what does
Management say?"
"We're on schedule. Rest of the crew comes down in three
weeks, we go online in four." Ballard sits down across from
Clarke. "I wonder sometimes why we're not online right now."
"I guess they just want to be sure everything works."
10 Peter Watts

"Still, it seems like a long time for a dry run. And you'd think
that тАФ well, they'd want to get the geothermal program up and