"Kim Stanley Robinson - Mars 4 - The Martians" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

_antechamber of the final judgment. Imagine a time of real religion, when
everyone felt like this all the time.

Some of them avoided Michel, and Charles and Georgia and Pauline, the other
psychologists. Others were too friendly. Mary Dunkel, Janet Blyleven, Frank
Chalmers; Michel had to watch himself to avoid ending up alone with these
people, or he would fall into a depression witnessing the spectacle of their
great charm.
The best solution was to stay active. Remembering the pleasure of his
hike with Tatiana, he went out as often as he could, accompanying the others
as they performed various maintenance and scientific tasks. The days passed in
their artificial rounds, everything measured out and lived just as if the sun
were rising in the morning and setting in the evening. Wake, eat, work, eat,
work, eat, relax, sleep. Just like home.
One day he went out with Frank on a hike up to an anemometer near the
Labyrinth, an interlacing complex of canyons cutting the floor of upper Wright
Valley. He wanted to try to see if he could penetrate the man's pleasant
surface. In the end it did not work; Frank was too cool, too professional, too
friendly. Years of work in Washington DC had made him very smooth indeed. He
had been involved in getting the first human expedition to Mars, a few years
before; an old friend of John Boone, the first man to set foot on Mars. He was
also said to be heavily involved in the planning for this expedition as well.
He was certainly one of those who felt they were going to be among the
hundred; extremely confident, in fact. He had a very American voice somehow,
booming out to Michel's left as they hiked. 'Check those glaciers, falling out
of the passes and being blown away before they reach the valley floor. What an
awesome place, really.'
'Yes.'
'These katabatic winds - falling off the polar cap - nothing can stop
them. Cold as hell. I wonder if that little windvane we set up here will even
be there any more.'
It was. They pulled out its data cartridge, put in another one. Around
them the huge expanse of brown rock formed a bowl under the starry sky. They
started back down.
'Why do you want to go to Mars, Frank?'


'What's this, we're still at work out here are we?'
'No, no. I'm just curious.'
 'Sure. Well, I want to try it. I want to try living somewhere where you
can actually try to do something new. Set up new systems, you know. I grew up
in the South, like you did. Only the American South is a lot different from
the French South. We were stuck in our history for a long, long time. Then
things opened up, partly because it got so bad. Partly just a lot of
hurricanes hitting the coast! And we had a chance to rebuild. And we did, but
not much changed. Not enough, Michel. So I have this desire to try it again.
That's the truth.' And he glanced over at Michel, as if to emphasize not only
that it was the truth, but that it was a truth he seldom talked about. Michel
liked him a bit better after that.