"Kevin J Anderson - Scientific Romance" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anderson Kevin J)

bright as the sun, but his personality remained acerbic and abrasive.
Wells would tolerate any number of rebukes, though, for the insights the
professor had given him during his biology lectures.
Even now, Huxley fell comfortably into the role of teacher. "Make note of
the meteorites we see this evening, and you will be able to envision their
radiant point in the constellation Leo."
Wells settled back to continue watching. Bright in the western ecliptic,
the ruddy point of Mars hung like a baleful eye, not twinkling, though the
other stars around it glittered and flickered.
He shivered from the chill in the air, then tapped his foot, always
moving, trying to get warm. Due to his severe financial situation, Wells
was underweight and scrawny ... even cadaverous, if one were to believe
his roommate and friend, A. V. Jennings. On Tuesdays, the day before
weekly pay for the scholars, Wells occasionally could not afford lunch,
and Jennings would take him out to fill up on beefsteak and beer so that
they could return replenished to the workbench in Huxley's laboratory.
Wells's wardrobe was meagre, consisting of grubby dark suits and worn
celluloid shirt collars. His thin jacket was insufficient against the
chill of the November evening, but he had no desire to go back inside the
school building.
A second meteor appeared overhead like a line drawn with a pen of fire,
eerie in its total silence. "Another!"
Around them the city of London made its own nighttime noises. Horsecarts
and black cabs clopped quietly by, while prostitutes flounced into dim
alleys or waited under the gas streetlamps. Across the park, in the
boarding house at Westbourne Grove where he and Jennings shared a room,
Wells knew the other residents would be engaged in their nightly
carousing, brawls, singing and drinking. Here, high above it all, though,
he enjoyed the peace.
Within moments a third meteor passed overhead, far from the trivial human
concerns around him. This shooting star was larger and louder than the
others, sputtering. Mentally tracing the fiery line back to its origin,
Wells saw that the meteor radiated from a point in the sky not far from
Mars itself, almost as if the red planet were launching them like sparks
from a grinding wheel.
"Do you ever imagine, Professor Huxley, sir," he said as an intriguing
idea formed in his mind, "that perhaps these flaming meteors are signals
of a kind, even ships that have crossed the gulf of space?" Wells had had
many outrageous ideas since the age of seven, and he often spoke his
speculations aloud, sometimes to the entertainment of others, sometimes to
their annoyance.
Huxley shifted position, looking over at his student with keen interest.
"Ships?" His eyes held a bold challenge, as did his tone. "And from whence
would they come, Wells?"
Wells rose to the occasion. "Why not ... Mars, for instance?" He indicated
the orange-red pinpoint of the planet. "According to theory, as the solar
system cooled, each planet became hospitable to life in relation to its
distance from the Sun. On Mars, therefore, intelligent life could have
begun to evolve long before any such spark occurred on Earth."
At the mention of evolution, Huxley perked up--just as Wells had known he