"William Forstchen - Into the Sea of Stars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Forstchen William R)

"We've other plans for you."

"Other plans?"

"Come now, Ian, you now as well as I do that thisnoble institution supports its staff and encourages it to
broaden the field of knowledge through publication. I've been checking on you, my man—in eighteen
years ofteaching, you've never been published."

"There is my book, you know!Missing Colonies andthe Heroic Figure in History."

"How many rejections have you had on that?"

Ian was silent.

"But that's not what I'm talking about. There are otherforms of writing, take grants, for instance."

He wants me as a grant writer! Endless forms to fillout. I'll go mad, Ian thought. Digging the sands of
Marswould be better. Perhaps Beaulieu would take me on as an assistant. But his stomach turned
somersaults at themere thought of space travel and weightlessness.

"You have some rather good experience with grants,my man. In fact, that's the reason for this friendly
chat of ours. It's your grant, Ian. I just got a call from theMinister of Education, who has a brother in the
Deep Space Exploration and Surveying Department. I'm talk-ing about your grant proposal."

"My grant proposal?" I've never written a grant pro-posal. Ian was about to say that he had no idea
what theChancellor was talking about, but then thought it mightbe better not to admit such ignorance.

"You do remember your grant proposal?" the Chan-cellor asked suspiciously.

Ian forced a smile and nodded noncommittally.

"Right, then. I just wanted to be the first to congrat-ulate you. Your grant has come through. You know
whatthis means for our school? Isn't this wonderful?"

"It's come through," Ian replied, trying to keep hisconfusion out of his voice. "Why, that's wonderful."
Whatthe hell is he talking about?
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"Well, aren't you excited, my good man? Think of theprestige it will bring to this institution."

And to your plans for being the next Minister of Ed-ucation, Ian thought.

"Don't you have anything to say?"

Ian could only smile weakly.

"Ah, I understand, of course you're in shock over thiswhole thing. But you'd better get cracking, my