"C. Sanford Lowe & G. David Nordley - The Small Pond" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lowe C Sanford)

She felt David pull her hand loose. “Go,” he told her. You can’t save this
place, you can’t save me.” And he pushed her toward the shuttle. “Just go!”
It was futile, they both knew it. Regardless, Liz focused. She could not give
up completely. How close could she come to getting away?
Prepare for immediate lift off as soon as I get in the hatch, she told the
shuttle. Without David’s weight, she reached the shuttle as the debris curtain spread
overhead. The trick would be to get between that and the blast wave.
The ladder hung out of the hatch. David got up at last, and tried to run toward
her.
“Hurry!” she screamed.
He tripped over a small rock and fell. He picked himself up. A second lost.
“I’m going to be the martyr here, Liz. Get lost!”
A strange orange light flooded the horizon. She turned. Ah, yes. This was it.
She sent what she saw streaming into the net. Roiling clouds zoomed toward the
zenith as if in a time-lapse video of normal weather. It glowed. Everything glowed.
She felt like she was in an oven.
Air slammed into her and sent her skyward, the shuttle and David tumbling
nearby. She felt surreal.
Hot—very, very hot. Her visor melted, bowed in, a blowtorch played on her
face. Everything went dark. She took a last breath, a breath of pure fire. She willed
herself to take it deep, so as not to prolong the pain. So I pass into legend. n
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Other parts of the Black Hole Project were described in
“Kremer’s Limit [July/August 2006] and “Imperfect Gods” [December 2006].
You can see additional information about the Project and the people involved in it
on the “Science Behind the Story” section of the Analog website
[www.analogsf.com].)
Copyright (c) 2006 C. Sanford Lowe & G. David Nordley