[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
basin meters below. Patricia peered into the basin and saw the smooth funnel
of water descending into darkness.
The truck on the roadbed was a replica of the vehicle which had taken them
across the first chamber. Farley offered Patricia the shotgun seat again, and
the others climbed into the back, pushing aside boxes of fabric-wrapped
scientific gear. Farley edged the truck forward, then brought it up to speed.
The roadbed expanded into a broad flat ribbon, winding through complexes of
tanks and gray shapes hidden behind a rapidly spreading fog. Wu leaned
between the two seats.
"This stuff that looks like asphalt--it isn't. It's asteroid rock, all the
metals removed, ground up and mixed with a plant-based oil. Very tough, no
cracks. We wonder who's going to patent it."
Somehow, Patricia found the dreariness invigorating. There was a bluish
quality about the fog that made her feel as if she were within a sapphire.
The rain resumed, and the drum of water on the track's roof---combined with a
gentle surge of warm air from the heater--made everything seem secure, no more
strenuous than watching an entertainment on a video.
She snapped herself out of that feeling quickly. Lanier was watching her.
She angled her face toward him and then looked away.
How could they consider her so important? In the face of this monumental
mystery, what could she possibly do?
The size alone was enough to paralyze thought. Looking up through gaps in the
cloud cover to the opposite side, she could .just as well have
file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Eon.txt (70 of 504) [1/17/03
7:20:21 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Eon.txt been looking from the
window of a shuttle reentering the atmosphere.
The truck followed the gently curving highway and crossed the sixth chamber in
twenty minutes. The familiar arch and tunnel entrance loomed ahead. Farley
switched on the lights as the tunnel enveloped them.
After the stormy sixth chamber, the clarity and brightness of the unhindered
plasma tube light was welcome.
"You can almost hear the birds singing," Patricia commented.
"I wish," Farley said. They descended the ramp. Ahead stretched an
arrow-straight road, about half as broad as the sixth chamber highway and made
of the same material. To each side of the road,..sandy hummocks topped with
stiff yellow grass dotted the floor for several kilometers. A short hike away
were stands of !ow, scrawny trees. To the west, up the curve of the chamber
floor, Patricia saw small lakes and what looked like a river emerging from one
of the cap tunnels.
A few fleecy clouds clung to the cap. The landscape was equally homogenous
and bland right up to the limits of the tube light both east and west. The
plasma tube itself emerged from 'the center of the cap in a straight,
unobscured beacon.
Patricia could feel the anticipation building in the cabin, centering on her.
They were waiting for her reaction.
Reaction to what? if anything, this chamber was less
file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Eon.txt (71 of 504) [1/17/03
7:20:21 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Eon.txt impressive than the
Page 42
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
first. Her shoulders tensed. So what was she supposed to say?
Lanier reached between the seats to touch her arm. "What do you see?"
he asked.
"Sand, grass, lakes, trees. A river. Some clouds."
"Look straight ahead."
She looked. The air was clear. Visibility was at least thirty kilometers.
The northern cap seemed to be obscured, not nearly as obvious as the looming
gray presence in the other chambers. She looked up and squinted, trying to
make out the end of the plasma tube.
It didn't end. It went on, certainly more than thirty kilometers, getting
dimmer and thinner until it almost merged with the horizon.
Of course, on a non-curved surfaceas the cylinders were, viewed parallel to
the axis--the horizon was much higher.
Given unlimited distance, the horizon would begin at a true vanishing point in
the perspective ....
"This chamber's longer," she said.
"Yes," Wu agreed cautiously. Chang nodded, grinning as if at some joke, her
hands folded demurely in her lap.
"Now, let me get this straight. We've traveled about two hundred and twenty
kilometers into the Stone, which is about two hundred and ninety kilometers
long. So this chamber could be, maybe, fifty kilometers across." Her hands
were trembling. "But it isn't."
"Look closely," Lanier said.
"It's an optical illusion. I can't see the northern cap."
"No," Farley said, all too sympathetic.
"So?" Patricia looked around the cab. The others kept their faces impassive,
except for Chang's secretive smile. "What the hell am I
supposed to see?"
"You tell us," Lanier said.
She figured furiously in her head, looking up at the opposite side of the
chamber, trying to calculate distances in the strange perspective of the huge
cylinders. "Stop the truck."
Farley brought the vehicle to a halt and Patricia descended from the cab to
stand on the roadway. Then she clambered up a ladder to a platform on top of
the cab and looked down the straight line of the road. The road went to its
own vanishing point--no cap, no barrier.
Above, the rest of the landscape did much the same.
"It's bigger," she said. Farley and Lanier stood by the mck, looking up at
her. Wu and Chang joined them. "It's bigger than the asteroid.
It goes beyond the end. Is that what you're trying to tell meT' "We don't
tell," Lanier said. "We show. It's the only way." · "You're trying to tell
me it doesn't stop, it goes right on out the other
file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Eon.txt (72 of 504) [1/17/03
7:20:21 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Eon.txt end?"
She heard the touch of panic and high-pitched fascination in her own voice.
The Stanford professor, six years before, had been wrong.
Someone besides extraterrestrials and gods could appreciate her work.
She now knew why she had been brought up from Vandenberg, carried to the Stone
by shuttle and OTV.
The asteroid was longer on the inside than it was on the outside.
The seventh chamber went on forever.
Chapter Five Patricia had slelshe checked her watch--nine hours. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl wyciskamy.pev.pl
basin meters below. Patricia peered into the basin and saw the smooth funnel
of water descending into darkness.
The truck on the roadbed was a replica of the vehicle which had taken them
across the first chamber. Farley offered Patricia the shotgun seat again, and
the others climbed into the back, pushing aside boxes of fabric-wrapped
scientific gear. Farley edged the truck forward, then brought it up to speed.
The roadbed expanded into a broad flat ribbon, winding through complexes of
tanks and gray shapes hidden behind a rapidly spreading fog. Wu leaned
between the two seats.
"This stuff that looks like asphalt--it isn't. It's asteroid rock, all the
metals removed, ground up and mixed with a plant-based oil. Very tough, no
cracks. We wonder who's going to patent it."
Somehow, Patricia found the dreariness invigorating. There was a bluish
quality about the fog that made her feel as if she were within a sapphire.
The rain resumed, and the drum of water on the track's roof---combined with a
gentle surge of warm air from the heater--made everything seem secure, no more
strenuous than watching an entertainment on a video.
She snapped herself out of that feeling quickly. Lanier was watching her.
She angled her face toward him and then looked away.
How could they consider her so important? In the face of this monumental
mystery, what could she possibly do?
The size alone was enough to paralyze thought. Looking up through gaps in the
cloud cover to the opposite side, she could .just as well have
file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Eon.txt (70 of 504) [1/17/03
7:20:21 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Eon.txt been looking from the
window of a shuttle reentering the atmosphere.
The truck followed the gently curving highway and crossed the sixth chamber in
twenty minutes. The familiar arch and tunnel entrance loomed ahead. Farley
switched on the lights as the tunnel enveloped them.
After the stormy sixth chamber, the clarity and brightness of the unhindered
plasma tube light was welcome.
"You can almost hear the birds singing," Patricia commented.
"I wish," Farley said. They descended the ramp. Ahead stretched an
arrow-straight road, about half as broad as the sixth chamber highway and made
of the same material. To each side of the road,..sandy hummocks topped with
stiff yellow grass dotted the floor for several kilometers. A short hike away
were stands of !ow, scrawny trees. To the west, up the curve of the chamber
floor, Patricia saw small lakes and what looked like a river emerging from one
of the cap tunnels.
A few fleecy clouds clung to the cap. The landscape was equally homogenous
and bland right up to the limits of the tube light both east and west. The
plasma tube itself emerged from 'the center of the cap in a straight,
unobscured beacon.
Patricia could feel the anticipation building in the cabin, centering on her.
They were waiting for her reaction.
Reaction to what? if anything, this chamber was less
file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Eon.txt (71 of 504) [1/17/03
7:20:21 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Eon.txt impressive than the
Page 42
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
first. Her shoulders tensed. So what was she supposed to say?
Lanier reached between the seats to touch her arm. "What do you see?"
he asked.
"Sand, grass, lakes, trees. A river. Some clouds."
"Look straight ahead."
She looked. The air was clear. Visibility was at least thirty kilometers.
The northern cap seemed to be obscured, not nearly as obvious as the looming
gray presence in the other chambers. She looked up and squinted, trying to
make out the end of the plasma tube.
It didn't end. It went on, certainly more than thirty kilometers, getting
dimmer and thinner until it almost merged with the horizon.
Of course, on a non-curved surfaceas the cylinders were, viewed parallel to
the axis--the horizon was much higher.
Given unlimited distance, the horizon would begin at a true vanishing point in
the perspective ....
"This chamber's longer," she said.
"Yes," Wu agreed cautiously. Chang nodded, grinning as if at some joke, her
hands folded demurely in her lap.
"Now, let me get this straight. We've traveled about two hundred and twenty
kilometers into the Stone, which is about two hundred and ninety kilometers
long. So this chamber could be, maybe, fifty kilometers across." Her hands
were trembling. "But it isn't."
"Look closely," Lanier said.
"It's an optical illusion. I can't see the northern cap."
"No," Farley said, all too sympathetic.
"So?" Patricia looked around the cab. The others kept their faces impassive,
except for Chang's secretive smile. "What the hell am I
supposed to see?"
"You tell us," Lanier said.
She figured furiously in her head, looking up at the opposite side of the
chamber, trying to calculate distances in the strange perspective of the huge
cylinders. "Stop the truck."
Farley brought the vehicle to a halt and Patricia descended from the cab to
stand on the roadway. Then she clambered up a ladder to a platform on top of
the cab and looked down the straight line of the road. The road went to its
own vanishing point--no cap, no barrier.
Above, the rest of the landscape did much the same.
"It's bigger," she said. Farley and Lanier stood by the mck, looking up at
her. Wu and Chang joined them. "It's bigger than the asteroid.
It goes beyond the end. Is that what you're trying to tell meT' "We don't
tell," Lanier said. "We show. It's the only way." · "You're trying to tell
me it doesn't stop, it goes right on out the other
file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Eon.txt (72 of 504) [1/17/03
7:20:21 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Eon.txt end?"
She heard the touch of panic and high-pitched fascination in her own voice.
The Stanford professor, six years before, had been wrong.
Someone besides extraterrestrials and gods could appreciate her work.
She now knew why she had been brought up from Vandenberg, carried to the Stone
by shuttle and OTV.
The asteroid was longer on the inside than it was on the outside.
The seventh chamber went on forever.
Chapter Five Patricia had slelshe checked her watch--nine hours. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]