"Peter F. Hamilton - Pandora's Star" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Peter F)

Pandora's Star




PROLOGUE

Mars dominated space outside theUlysses , a bloated dirty-ginger crescent of a planet that never quite
made it as a world. Small, frigid, barren, airless, it was simply the solar system’s colder version of hell.
Yet its glowing presence in the sky had dominated most of human history; first as a god to inspire
generations of warriors, then as a goal to countless dreamers.

Now, for NASA Captain-Pilot Wilson Kime, it had become solid land. Two hundred kilometers beyond
the landing craft’s narrow, curving windshield he could pick out the dark gash that was the Valles
Marineris. As a boy he’d accessed the technofantasies of the Aries Underground group, entranced by
how one day in an unspecified future, foaming water would once again race down that vast gully as raw
human ingenuity unlocked the frozen ice trapped beneath the rusting landscape. Today, he would be the
first to walk through those dusty craters he’d studied in a thousand satellite photos, trickle the legendary
thin red sand through his gloved fingers. Today was glorious history in the making.

Wilson automatically started a deep feedback breathing exercise, calming his heart before the reality of
what was about to happen could affect his metabolism. No way was he giving those goddamn desk
medics back in Houston a chance to questionhis fitness to pilot the landing craft. Eight years he’d spent
in the USAF, including two combat duties based in Japan for Operation Deliver Peace, followed by
another nine years with NASA. All that buildup and anticipation: the sacrifices, his first wife and totally
alienated kid; the eternal VR training at Houston, the press conferences, the mind-rotting PR tours of
factories; he’d endured it all because it led to this one moment in this most sacred place.

Mars. At last!

“Initiating VKT ranging, cross match RL acquisition data,” he told the landing craft’s autopilot. The
colored lines of the windshield’s holographic display began to change their geometrical patterns. He
kept one eye on the timer: eight minutes. “Purging BGA system and vehicle interlink tunnel.” His left
hand flicked the switches on the console, and tiny LEDs came on to confirm the switch cycle. Some
actions NASA would never entrust to voice activation software. “Commencing BGA nonpropulsive
vent. Awaiting prime ship sep sequence confirmation.”

“Roger that,Eagle II ,” Nancy Kressmire’s voice said in his headset. “Telemetry analysis has you as
fully functional. Prime ship power systems ready for disengagement.”

“Acknowledged,” he told theUlysses ’s captain. Turquoise and emerald spiderwebs within the
windshield fluttered elegantly, reporting the lander’s internal power status. Their sharp primary colors
appeared somehow alien across the dull pallor of the wintry Martian landscape outside. “Switching to
full internal power cells. I have seven greens for umbilical sep. Retracting inter-vehicle access tunnel.”

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