"Robert A. Metzger - Cusp" - читать интересную книгу автора (Metzger Robert)

nearly 1 million kilometers.”

Sutherland smiled. “A minor perturbation in the grand scheme of things.” The ground suddenly rolled
beneath them, but both kept to their feet, rocking back and forth.

“But it’s not stopping!” shouted Kristensen. “Its acceleration is constant, and the effects of that minor
perturbation will soon add up. Two weeks from now the Earth will be as far away from the Sun as Mars
currently is. In two months, the Earth will be where Saturn is.”

“Sounds about right,” said Sutherland. “Our models show that total global ecosystem collapse will occur
in about three weeks, with nothing much above the level of bacteria able to survive at the six-week
mark.”
Kristensen blinked several times, unable to understand how Sutherland could be indifferent to the end of
all life on Earth. “Then why waste the time looking for me?”

“Because it won’t come to that.”

“And what would possibly lead you to believe that?” asked Kristensen.

Sutherland smiled. “I suppose you’ve attributed this quake to the gravitational stresses that the Earth must
be experiencing because of the Sun’s shift in position?”

“Of course,” said Kristensen.

Sutherland slowly shook his head. “It’s something else. Take a look.”

Kristensen blinked, feeling the tickle of snips being forced through his Ocs. In front of him popped an
image of the Earth, all blues, whites, and greens—and something else. He slowly walked toward the
image. Plumes of smoke, rolling eastward, dotted the Pacific Rim, most of Japan under a black cloud,
and the coast from northern California right up to Alaska covered in what Kristensen thought looked like
gray ash. A bit further to the east a patch of something molten nestled up against the eastern slope of the
Rockies.

“The entire Yellowstone basin has let go,” said Sutherland. “A lava field runs through most of western
Montana. But those are all just effects. What is interesting is the cause.”

Kristensen moved even closer.

At first he had thought it was a glitch in the projection, or some superimposed reference mark. A white
line cut across the Pacific, right along the equator. As he neared the image, he saw that there was another
white line, perpendicular to the first, running through North and South America, and looking as if it might
go right over the top of the North Pole, and get lost in the polar cap. “Map reference?” asked
Kristensen.

“Real,” said Sutherland. “Got the first reports in about 20 hours ago, though we now suspect by
reviewing deep-level seismic reports that the structure first started well below ground, just around 39
hours ago.”

Kristensen looked up. “When the Sun started firing its plasma jet.”