【英文读物】Slow Burn.docx

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1、【英文读物】Slow BurnChapter 1 Tell em to look sharp, Bert. This pickups got to be good. Kevin Morrow gulped the last of his coffee and felt its bitter acid gurgle around his stomach. He stared moodily through the plastic port where the spangled skirt of stars glittered against the black satin of endless

2、night and a familiar curve of the space station swung ponderously around its hub.Four space-suited tugmen floated languidly outside the rim. Beyond them the gleaming black and white moonship tugged gently at her mooring lines, as though anxious to be off.Bert Alexander radioed quiet instructions to

3、the tugmen.Why the hell couldnt he stay down there and mind his own business? Kevin growled. McKelvies been after our hide ever since we got the appropriation, and now this. He slapped the flimsy radio-gram.He looked up as the control room hatch opened. Jones came in from the astronomy section.Morni

4、ng, commander, he said. You guys had breakfast yet? Mess closes in 30 minutes. Kevin shook his head.Were not hungry, Bert filled in.You think youve got nerves? Jones chuckled. I just looked in on Mark. Hes sleeping like a baby. You wouldnt think the biggest day of his life is three hours away.McKelv

5、ies coming up to kibitz, Morrow said.McKelvie!The one and only, Bert said. Here, read all about it.He handed over the morning facsimile torn off the machine when the station hurtled over New England at 18,000 miles an hour. The upper half of the sheet bore a picture of the white-maned senator. Clear

6、ly etched on his face were the lines of too many half-rigged elections, too many compromises.Beneath the picture were quotes from his speech the night before.As chairman of your congressional watchdog committee, the senator had said, Ill see that theres no more waste and corruption on this space pro

7、ject. For three years theyve been building a rocketthe moon rocket, they call itout there at the space station.I havent seen that rocket, the senator had continued. All Ive seen is five billion of your tax dollars flying into the vacuum of space. They tell me a man named Mark Kramer is going to fly

8、out in that rocket and circle the moon.But he will fail, McKelvie had promised. If God had intended man to fly to the moon, he would have given us wings to do it. Tomorrow I shall fly out to this space station, even at the risk of my life. Ill report the waste and corruption out there, and Ill repor

9、t the failure of the moon rocket.Jones crumpled the paper and aimed at the waste basket.Pardon me while I vomit, he said.Weve been there, Kevin sighed deeply. I suppose Max Gordon will be happy.Hell wear a hole in his tongue on McKelvies boots, Bert said bitterly.Is it that bad?How else would he get

10、 a first class spacemans badge? Morrow said. He cant add two and two. But if stool pigeons had wings, hed fly like a jet. We cant move up here without McKelvie knowing and howling about it.Dont worry, Jones said, If the moon rocket makes it, public opinion will take care of the senator.If he doesnt

11、take care of us first, Kevin said darkly. Hell be aboard in 15 minutes.Chapter 2 Dawn touched the High Sierras as the station whirled in from the Pacific, 500 miles high.Bert. Get me a radar fix on White Sands.Morrow huddled over the small computer, feeding in radar information as it came from his a

12、ssistant.Rocket away! Blared a radio speaker on the bulkhead. The same message carried to the four space-suited tugmen floating beyond the rim of the wheel, linked with life-lines.Jones watched interestedly out the port.There she is! he yelled.Sunlight caught the ascending rocket, held it in a splas

13、h of light. The intercept technique was routine now, a matter of timing, but for a moment Kevin succumbed to the frightening optical illusion that the rocket was approaching apex far below the station. Then, slowly, the slender cylinder matched velocity and pulled into the orbit, crept to its destin

14、ation.With deceptive ease, the four human tugs attached magnetic shoes and guided the projectile into the space station hub with short, expert blasts of heavy rocket pistols.Take over Bert, Morrow directed, I guess Im the official greeter. He hurried out of the control room, through a short connecti

15、ng tube and emerged floating in the central space surrounding the hub where artificial gravity fell to zero. Air pressure was normal to transfer passengers without space suits.The connecting lock clanked open. The rocket pilot stepped out.He got sick, the pilot whispered to Kevin. I swabbed him off,

16、 but hes hoppin mad.The senators mop of white hair appeared in the port. Kevin braced to absorb a tirade, but McKelvies deep scowl changed to an expression of bliss as he floated weightless into the tiny room.Why, this is wonderful! he sputtered. He waved his arms like a bird and kicked experimental

17、ly with a foot.Grab him! Kevin shouted. Hes gone happy with it.The pilot was too late. McKelvies body sailed gracefully through the air and his head smacked the bulkhead. His eyes glazed in a frozen expression of carefree happiness.Kevin swore. Now hell accuse us of a plot against his life. Help me

18、get him to sick bay.The two men guided the weightless form into a tube connecting with the outer ring. As they pushed outward, McKelvies weight increased until they carried him the last 50 feet into the dispensary compartment.Max Gordon burst wild-eyed into the room.What have you done to the senator

19、? he shouted. Why didnt you tell me he was coming up? Morrow made sure McKelvie was receiving full medical attention before he turned to the junior officer.He went space happy and bumped his head, Kevin said curtly, and there was no more reason to notify you than the rest of the crew. He walked away

20、. Gordon bent solicitously over his unconscious patron.Kevin found Anderson in the passageway.I ordered them to start fueling Moonbeam, Bert said.Good. Is Mark awake?Eating breakfast. The psychos giving him a clinical chat.I wish it were over. Morrow brushed back his hair.Youve really got the jitter

21、s, huh chief?Morrow turned angrily and then tried to laugh.Id sell my job for a nickel right now, Bert. This will be touch and go, without having the worst enemy of space flight aboard. If this ship fails, its more than a rocket or the death of a man. Itll set the whole program back 50 years.I know,

22、 Bert answered, but hell make it.Footsteps sounded in the tube outside the cabin. Mark Kramer walked in.Hi, chief, he grinned, Moonbeam ready to go?The techs are out now and fuels aboard. How about you? Shouldnt you get some rest?Thats all Ive had since they shipped me out here. Kramer laughed. Itll

23、 be a snap. After all, Ill never make over two gees and pick up 7000 mph to leave you guys behind. Then I play ring around the rosy, take a look at Lunas off side and come home. Just like that.Just like that, Kevin whispered meditatively. The moon rocket, floating there outside the stations rim was

24、ugly, designed never to touch a planets atmosphere, but it was the most beautiful thing man had ever built, assembled in space from individual fragments boosted laboriously from the Earths surface.Another clatter of footsteps approached the hatch. Max Gordon entered and stood at attention as Senator

25、 McKelvie made a dignified entrance. The senator wore an adhesive patch on his high forehead. He turned to Kramer.Young man, he rumbled, are you the fool risking your life in thatthat thing out there? You must know itll never reach the moon. I know itll neverKramers face paled slightly and he moved

26、swiftly between the two men. Without using force, he backed the senator and Gordon through the hatch and slammed it behind him. Anger was a knot of green snakes in his belly.I want to talk to that pilot, McKelvie said belligerently.Im sorry, senator. The best psychiatrists on Earth worked eight mont

27、hs to condition Kramer for this flight. He must not be emotionally disturbed. You cant talk to him.You forbid.? McKelvie exploded, but Morrow intercepted smoothly.Gordon. Im sure the senator would like a tour of the station. Will you escort him?McKelvies face reddened and Max opened his mouth to obj

28、ect.Gordon! Morrow said sharply. Max closed his mouth and guided the grumbling congressman up the tube.Chapter 3 Twenty minutes to blastoff, Bert reported.Right, Kevin acknowledged absently. He studied taped data moving in by radio facsimile from the mammoth electronic computer on Earth.Our orbits t

29、rue, he said with satisfaction and wiped a sweaty palm on his trousers. Get the time check, Bert. Beeps from the Naval Observatory synchronized with the space station chronometer.Alert Kramer.Hes leaving the airlock now, Bert said. From the intercom, Morrow listened to periodic reports from crew mem

30、bers as McKelvie and Gordon progressed in their tour.Mr. Morrow?Right.This is Adams in Section M. The senator and Gordon have been in the line chamber for 10 minutes.Boot em out, Kevin said crisply. Blastoff in 15 minutes.That machinery controls the safety lines, Bert said.Kevin looked up with a puz

31、zled frown, but turned back to watch Kramer creeping along a mooring line to the moon ship. A group of tugmen helped the space-suited figure into the rocket, dogged shut the hatch and cleared back to the station rim.Station to Kramer, on the radio, are you ready?All set, came the steady voice, give

32、me the word.All right. Five minutes. Kevin turned to the intercom. Release safety lines.In the weightlessness of space the cables retained their normal rigid line from the rim of the station to the rocket. They had been under no strain. Their shape would not change until they were reeled in.Two minu

33、tes, Morrow warned. Tension grew as Anderson began the slow second count. The hatch opened. McKelvie and Gordon entered the control room. No one noticed it.Five . four . three . two . one .A gout of white fire jabbed from the stern of the rocket. Slowly the ship moved forward.Morrow watched tensely,

34、 hands gripping a safety rail.Then his face froze in a mask of disbelief and horror.The lines! he shouted. The safety lines fouled!He fell sprawling as the space station lurched heavily, tipped upward like a giant platter under the inexorable pull of the moon rocket.Kevin scrambled back to the viewp

35、ort, the shriek of tortured metal in his ears. Horror-stricken, he saw the taut cables that had failed to release. Then a huge section of nylon, aluminum and rubber ripped out of the station wall, was visible a second in the rocket glare, and vanished.Escaping air whistled through the crippled struc

36、ture. Pressure dropped alarmingly before the series of automatic airlocks clattered reassuringly shut.Kevins hand was bleeding. He staggered with the frightening new motion of the space station. Gordon and the senator had collapsed against a bulkhead. McKelvies pale face twisted with fear and amazem

37、ent. Blood streaked down the pink curve of his forehead.Individual station reports trickled through the intercom. Miraculously, the bulk of the station had escaped damage.Line chambers gone, Adams reported. Other bulkheads holding, but something must have jammed the line machines. They ripped right

38、out.Get repair crews in to patch leaks, Morrow shouted. He turned frantically to the radio. Station to Moonbeam. Kramer! Are you all right?He waited an agonizing minute, then a scratchy voice came through.Kramer, here. What the hell happened? Something gave me a terrific yaw, but the gyro pulled me

39、back on course. Fuel consumption high. Otherwise Im okay.You ripped out part of the station, Kevin yelled. Youre towing extra mass. Release the safety lines if you can.The faint answer came back, garbled by static.Another disaster halted a new try to reach him.With a howling rumble, the massive gyro

40、scope case in the bulkhead split open. The heavy wheel, spinning at 20,000 revolutions per minute, slowly and majestically crawled out of its gimbals; the gyroscope that stabilized the entire structure remained in its plane of revolution, but ripped out of its moorings when the station was forcibly

41、tilted.Spinning like a giant top, the gyro walked slowly across the deck. McKelvie and Gordon scrambled out of its way.Itll go through! Bert shouted. Kevin leaped to a chest of emergency patches.The wheel ripped through the magnesium shell like a knife in soft cheese. A gaping rent opened to the raw

42、 emptiness of space, but Morrow was there with the patch. Before decompression could explode the four creatures of blood and bone, the patch slapped in place, sealed by the remaining air pressure.Trembling violently, Kevin staggered to a chair and collapsed. Silence rang in his ears. Anderson grippe

43、d the edge of a table to keep from falling. Kevin turned slowly to McKelvie and Gordon.Come here, he said tonelessly.Now see here, young man the senator blustered.I said come here!The two men obeyed. The commanders voice held a new edge of steel.You were the last to leave the line control room, he s

44、aid. Did you touch that machinery?Gordons face was the color of paste. His mouth worked like a suffocating fish. McKelvie recovered his bluster.Im a United States senator, he stuttered, Ill not be threatened.Im not threatening you, Kevin said, but if you fouled that machinery to assure your predicti

45、on about the rocket, Ill see that you hang. Do you realize that gyroscope was the only control we had over the motion of this space station? Whatever it does now is the result of the moon rockets pull. We may not live to see that rocket again.As though verifying Morrows words, the lights dimmed mome

46、ntarily and returned to normal brilliance. A frightened voice came from the squawkbox.Hey, chief! This is power control. Weve lost the sun!Anderson looked out the port, studied the slowly wheeling stars.Mother of God, he breathed. Were flopping . like a flapjack over a stove.And the power mirrors we

47、re on only one face of the space station, mirrors that collected the suns radiation and converted it to power. Now they were collecting nothing but the twinkling of the stars.The vital light would return as the station continued its new, awkward rotation, but would the intermittent exposure be suffi

48、cient to sustain power?Shut down everything but emergency equipment, Morrow directed. When we get back on the sun, soak every bit of juice you can into those batteries. He turned to Gordon and McKelvie. Wont it be interesting if we freeze to death, or suffocate when the air machines stop?Worry replaced anger as he turned abru