"Kristine Kathryn Rusch - The Tenth Planet" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

use, even acci-dentally, at press conferences, and besides, the jokes did not
translate well into the complex's other approved languages. As a result, the
scientists who tried to create a shred of per-sonality in their tools
imagined
ISMB 6 as a serious, unimagi-native little worker, who could be relied upon
at
all times.
ISMB 6 wasn't aware of any of this. ISMB 6 really wasn't aware of anything.
It
simply went about its job, orbiting Uranus, sending telemetry back to Earth.
It's entire mission was routine, as routine as a pioneering mission could be
until ISMB 6's third orbit of the day, a day artificially measured in Earth
time.
As ISMB 6 rose slightly above and beyond the dark, cold surface of Uranus, a
blackness seemed to loom near the little craft, almost as if an invisible
cloud
of soot was filling space.
Then, with a weak, reflected flash of light from the dark-ness, all data
stopped
flowing toward Earth.
All instruments shut down.
ISMB 6, the faithful, hardworking little buoy, was dead.
August 16, 2017
4:56 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time
240 Days Until Arrival
Orange and yellow bands of light cut through the morning mist as the sun
peeked
above the Coast Mountain Range. The morning air had a thick dampness that
felt
more appropriate to winter than to August, yet by noon the chill would be
gone
and the temperature would hit eighty.
Dr. Edwin Bradshaw ducked out of his tent and pulled his jacket tight around
his
shoulders, shivering slightly in the cool morning air. A mile to the west the
Pacific Ocean rumbled as the surf hit the beach. He couldn't see the
water—the
tall pine trees that surrounded him prevented that—but he could hear the
ocean.
Its sound was constant, sometimes a low murmur and sometimes an angry
explosive
pounding. And sometimes this rumble.
He found that the ocean's constant conversation soothed him. He knew he would
miss it, as he always did, when he had to go back to the Valley. He would
miss
all of this. He was lucky to have ended up here, in Oregon, rather than some
po-dunk university somewhere, a place with no credentials and no budget to
send
him anywhere. Oregon State University liked his background, despite the
controversies, and for the most part, the administration left him alone. He