"Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle - The mote in God ' s eye" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niven Larry)

Lieutenant Cargill and Engineer Sinclair were competent men, but Rod was Exec and damage control
was his responsibility, even if he'd been away from MacArthur when she took most of the hits.
Rod's Marine orderly coughed discreetly and pointed to the stained uniform. "Sir, we've
time to get you more decent?"
"Good thinking." Rod glanced at the status board to be sure. Yes, he had half an hour
before he could take a boat down to the planet's surface. Leaving sooner wouldn't get him to the
Admiral's office any quicker. It would be a relief to get out of these coveralls. He hadn't
undressed since he was wounded.
They had to send for a surgeon's mate to undress him. The medic snipped at the armor cloth
embedded in his left arm and muttered. "Hold still, sir. That arm's cooked good." His voice was
disapproving. "You should have been in sick bay a week ago."
"Hardly possible," Rod answered. A week before, MacArthur had been in battle with a rebel
warship, who'd scored more hits than she ought to have before surrendering. After the victory Rod
was prize master in the enemy vessel, and there weren't facilities for proper treatment there. As


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the armor came away he smelled something worse than week-old sweat. Touch of gangrene, maybe.
"Yessir." A few more threads were cut away. The synthetic was as tough as steel. "Now it's
gonna take surgery, Commander. Got to cut all that away before the regeneration stimulators can
work. While we got you in sick bay we can fix that nose."
"I like my nose," Rod told him coldly. He fingered the slightly crooked appendage and
recalled the battle when it was broken. Rod thought it made him look older, no bad thing at twenty-
four standard years; and it was the badge of an earned, not inherited, success. Rod was proud of
his family background, but there were times when the Blaine reputation was a bit hard to live up
to.
Eventually the armor was cut loose and his arm smeared with Numbitol. The stewards helped
him into a powder blue uniform, red sash, gold braid, epaulettes; all wrinkled and crushed, but
better than monofiber coveralls. The stiff jacket hurt his arm despite the anesthetic until he
found that he could rest his forearm on the pistol butt.
When he was dressed he boarded the landing gig from MacArthur's hangar deck, and the
coxswain let the boat drop through the big flight elevator doors without having the spin taken off
the ship. It was a dangerous maneuver, but it saved time. Retros fired, and the little winged
flyer plunged into atmosphere.

NEW CHICAGO: Inhabited world, Trans-Coalsack Sector, approximately 20 parsecs from Sector
Capital. The primary is an F9 yellow star commonly referred to as Beta Hortensis.
The atmosphere is very nearly Earth-normal and breathable without aids or filters. Gravity
is 1.08 standard. The planetary radius is 1.05, and mass is 1.21 Earth-standard, indicating a
planet of greater than normal density. New Chicago is inclined at 41 degrees with a semi-major
axis of 1.06 AU, moderately eccentric. The resulting variations in seasonal temperatures have
confined the inhabited areas to a relatively narrow band in the south temperate zone.
There is one moon at normal distance, commonly called Evanston. The origin of the name is
obscure.
New Chicago is 70 percent seas. Land area is mostly mountainous with continuing volcanic
activity. The extensive metal industries of the First Empire period were nearly all destroyed in
the Succession Wars; reconstruction of an industrial base has proceeded satisfactorily since New
Chicago was admitted to the Second Empire in AD. 2940. Most inhabitants reside in a single city