"Timothy Zahn - Spinneret" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

branch, but it was too far away for him to pick out any details. A few minutes later
the craft entered the eastern arm, and Hafner saw that there was another collection
of buildings at its far end. The majority seemed to be built along the lines of
rowhouses, though there were a few larger ones that probably served as
community or storage facilities. The construction material was obvious: some sort
of adobe, probably baked in slabs for faster construction. Undoubtedly efficient,
given the lack of wood, but the drab result was pretty grim.

Beside him, two Hispanic-looking men were also squinting at the town ahead.
From the tone of their muttered Spanish, Hafner decided they were similarly
unimpressed by its appearance. He wondered if anyone had thought to bring along
any house paint, decided regretfully that such a consideration would rank low on
military priority lists.

For the moment, though, the clothing of the people milling about added color to

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Zahn, Timothy - Spinneret


the scene. A small crowd was gathered near the dock, where one of the other
hovercraft was still unloading. Hafner's craft slid into position on the opposite side
of the welded metal pier, and the scientist joined the rest of the colonists
streaming ashore.

The crowd turned out to be the queue for a sort of open-air check-in station the
military had set up. Hafner took his place at the end of one of the lines, thankful
that the Army had had the sense to give the colonists some time in the open after
the cramped conditions aboard ship.

The sun was directly overheadтАФnoon of a twenty-seven-hour dayтАФand now that
the mountain foothills blocked the stiff ocean breeze, the air was beginning to
warm up. Hafner slipped off his jacket, wondering idly how good the
meteorologists' seasonal predictions really were. Astra's smaller axial tilt should
give milder temperature swings than those of Hafner's native Pennsylvania, but
with barely a year's worth of data to go on, the planet's climate was far from
established. Certainly it seemed hotter now than the early spring this part of Astra
was supposed to be in at the moment, and if this wasn't just a temporary heat wave
even the tough hybrid crop strains they'd brought with them might be in trouble.
He hoped the experts had taken such possibilities into account.

Finally, it was his turn at the front of the line. "Name?" the sweating lieutenant
asked, not bothering to look up from his portable terminal.

"Peter Hafner. I'm a geologist with Dr. Patterson's groupтАФ"

The terminal spat out a small card. "Hafner, Peter Andrew; 1897-22-6618;
science/professional." The soldier handed Hafner the card. "House number 127
here in Unie; maps are posted in the courtyard over there; meal and orientation
meeting times are on the bulletin board beside the maps. Questions will be