"Frank Herbert - Destination Void 1 Destination Void" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

During those ten months, the computed possibility of a total ship emergency
remained at its highest. The umbilicus crew had not been prepared for that
kind of pressure.

Bickel shot a covert glance at Flattery, noting how silent and withdrawn the
psychiatrist-chaplain appeared. There were times when it rasped Bickel's
nerves to think how little could be hidden from Flattery, but this was not one
of those times. Out here, Bickel realized, each of them had to become a
specialist on his companions. Otherwise, ship pressures coupled to
psychological pressures might destroy them.

"How long do you suppose it'll take Moonbase to answer?" Bickel asked,
directing the question at Timberlake.

Flattery stiffened, studied the back of Bickel's head. The question . . .
such a nice balance of camaraderie and apology in the voice . . . Bickel had
done that deliberately, Flattery realized. Bickel went deeper than they had
suspected, but perhaps they should have suspected. He was, after all, the
Earthling's pivotal figure.

"It'll take 'em a while to digest it," Timberlake said. "I still think we
should've waited."

Wrong tack, Flattery thought. An overture should be accepted. He brushed a
finger along one of his heavy eyebrows, moved forward with a calculated
clumsiness, forcing them to be aware of him.

"Their first problem's public relations," Flattery said. "That'll cause some
delay."

"Their first question'll be, why'd the OMCs fail?" Timberlake said.

"There was no medical reason for it," Flattery put in. He realized he had
spoken too quickly, sensed his own defensiveness.

"It'll turn out to be something new, something nobody anticipated, wait and
see," Timberlake said.

Something nobody anticipated? Bickel wondered. And he doubted that, but held
his silence. For the first time since coming aboard, he felt the bulk of the
Earthling around him and thought of all the hopes and energies that had
launched this venture. It occurred to him then what a mountain of hard-headed
planning had gone into the project.

He sensed the sleepless nights, the skull sessions of engineers and
scientists, the pragmatic dreamers tossing their ideas back and forth across
coffee cups and buttmounded ashtrays.

Something nobody anticipated? Hardly.