[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
And wondered how to start. She had fretted for weeks about this moment, but now, actually in Julia's
presence, she marveled. The years had lined that face, but it was still the one Shanna had on her dorm
room wall in college. This woman had changed space travel, revolutionized biological studies. Julia
didn't just take part in the first manned mission past the moon but stayed there and made a home, back
when astronauts were still hopping up and down from space like it was hot water they couldn't stand to
stay in. Shanna swallowed, and set aside her hero-worship attitude toward Julia. Face it-you want to be
like her, the benchmark of greatness. Which means you have to keep hold of your results out here, not let
the media feature the Mars Couple every other minute...
The absurd chair gymnastics seemed to break the ice between them. Unplanned, but who knew what the
unconscious could do? Shanna had learned to go with the flow of events and surf on it when she could.
It was the only wisdom she could pretend to herself that she had actually discovered, instead of just
reading about, but maybe it was enough. Anyway-"Let's talk as captains, eh?"
"I'm actually not captain," Julia said.
"What? Earthside-"
"I'm in charge of scientific matters. Viktor's Captain, but he and I are married, so we have split the
duties. That's our style."
"That's completely contrary to-"
"Chain of command, I know. We cut a deal with Earthside. Whatever they want to call it, fine."
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Shanna kept her face as impassive as a firm wall against getting irked and losing it. "Because you're
famous, you think you can abuse-"
"Use, not abuse." Julia leaned on the slim black poly table between them. "Having the Axelrod name
must've been useful in keeping your captaincy, eh?"
"That was a little matter-"
"Look, we're 6 billion klicks from Earthside regulations-"
"And you and Viktor," Shanna spat back, "the oldest crew in the astronaut corps, you're going to be in
charge?"
"Not at all," Julia said mildly. "Experience does count, seniority might matter-but we have two ships, so
we have two captains. As we're all on the same scientific expedition, we have to agree on methods,
results, risks. Viktor and I have more experience than you-"
"On Mars, which is an oven compared with Pluto. Why, we've had telepresence crawlers freeze right
into the regolith, first day out! Took steam piped from the ship to get it free. I've had a lot more
experience-"
"Than we have at superlow temperatures, yes." Julia's eyes narrowed, her mouth twisted wryly. "But the
biggest problem out here, the reason for the gigabucks spent to put us here at top speed, is the bow
shock."
"If it's a threat." Shanna's words rapped out. "Earthside weather hasn't shown any changes-except for the
global warming, of course- even though the shock wall has gone from 100 AU to 42 AU in thirty-some
years."
"I know the data, for goodness' sake! But a hell of a lot of numerical simulations show big effects in the
offing. The molecular hydrogen that's leaking into the inner solar system, it'll build up and start reacting
with the free oxygen in our upper atmosphere."
"And make water, big deal. Nobody knows-"
"Plenty of energy yield there, that's the point. Heat up the upper mesosphere, and that drives big changes
below. Screws up the stratosphere temperature profile, and pretty quick that heat moves down toward
the business end, where our weather gets made."
Shanna sniffed, nose turned up. "I see where you're going with this. We should be looking mostly at the
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shock edge, find out what's driving it. But Pluto is key here. That's what my, our discoveries show.
Something's running all this, and it isn't stupid."
"Nobody said the problem wasn't interconnected."
"This isn't about dumb weather!" Shanna tossed her head back, her hair cascading slowly in the low
gravity.
"Okay, smart weather, then. Point is, the zand are pretty interesting. You were lucky to have stumbled
into first contact with a self-aware species."
Shanna felt her defensive walls come up. "Not stumbled-more like ferreted out," she shot back. "Some
people thought I was just imagining the whole thing, that I was faking the data, even."
"To be sure. The early criticism was unwarranted, but that's often what you'll get from Earthside. A lot
of second-guessing and tall-poppy cutting."
"Huh? I don't get it." Shanna looked perplexed.
"Aussie slang. Grow into a tall poppy, people slice you off, whittle you down to size. Put another way,
the Greeks felt their gods punished excessive hubris. It's the same thing."
"Oh, I see. Hm. Never thought of it that way."
"It helps not to take the automatic criticism personally. Save that for the important objections. The trick
is to tell them apart."
Shanna felt some of her anger ebbing away. In her defense against coming across as a hero-worshiper
she'd forgotten that Julia had endured decades of scrutiny and bad-mouthing. Julia pressed on. "But
we're moving beyond the zand, now, to contact with the movers and shakers out here-that's the main
event. And if I may offer a bit of advice on the zand, you have to get over pretty fast your claim of
exclusivity. You don't own the zand just because you discovered them. Hundreds of scientists Earthside
are now reworking their research agendas to focus on the ecology of Pluto. No, make that thousands.
Not to mention all the ink that will be wasted by the 'What does it all mean?' crowd."
"You want to have a crack at them?" Shanna resented the rebuke.
"Look." Julia sat back, shaking her head. "We can't start out like this, with a fight. We cooperate out
here or we die."
Shanna nodded, thinking furiously for a way around this woman, to hold her own. Go crying to
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Earthside? Not again. Try to marginalize her in future? Hard to do, on another ship. Okay, put that
aside for now, but keep looking for an advantage. "Okay."
"I know Axel-sorry, your father-spoke with you about our taking some Darksiders back with us."
"Hey, 'Axelrod' is fine. I didn't see him much as a child." She made a wry face. "Yeah, I know he wants
them. I even agreed to deliver some, if we can." She felt suddenly drained. Time to end this conversation.
Julia sat, unmoving. Shanna made herself smile slightly. Bad beginning. She looks tired. My turn to try
to lighten this up. "Hey, my father thinks we're both bad girls."
Julia made a small, thin smile. "We are, no doubt. Maybe we're both a bit, how to say, heavy-handed?
One thing you learn as captain is that there are very few problems that can't be helped by orders ending
with 'or die.'"
Shanna sighed. "I discovered that myself. My crew is irritated with me."
Julia studied her. "You've been on duty too long. You're worn down."
Shanna's eyes flashed. "Uh-uh. I and my crew are as fit for service as anybody."
"I'm sure," Julia said stiffly, getting up. "Look, you and I haven't exactly hit it off-"
"I'll say!"
"-but let's keep it to ourselves."
"Right. Professional." She cocked a wry smile. "I guess this day was a total waste of makeup."
This made Julia smile faintly, grudgingly. "It wasn't wasted on my crew, believe me. The guys have had [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl fopke.keep.pl
And wondered how to start. She had fretted for weeks about this moment, but now, actually in Julia's
presence, she marveled. The years had lined that face, but it was still the one Shanna had on her dorm
room wall in college. This woman had changed space travel, revolutionized biological studies. Julia
didn't just take part in the first manned mission past the moon but stayed there and made a home, back
when astronauts were still hopping up and down from space like it was hot water they couldn't stand to
stay in. Shanna swallowed, and set aside her hero-worship attitude toward Julia. Face it-you want to be
like her, the benchmark of greatness. Which means you have to keep hold of your results out here, not let
the media feature the Mars Couple every other minute...
The absurd chair gymnastics seemed to break the ice between them. Unplanned, but who knew what the
unconscious could do? Shanna had learned to go with the flow of events and surf on it when she could.
It was the only wisdom she could pretend to herself that she had actually discovered, instead of just
reading about, but maybe it was enough. Anyway-"Let's talk as captains, eh?"
"I'm actually not captain," Julia said.
"What? Earthside-"
"I'm in charge of scientific matters. Viktor's Captain, but he and I are married, so we have split the
duties. That's our style."
"That's completely contrary to-"
"Chain of command, I know. We cut a deal with Earthside. Whatever they want to call it, fine."
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Benford,%20Gregory%20-%20The%20Sunborn.htm (171 of 283)8-12-2006 23:50:21
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Benford,%20Gregory%20-%20The%20Sunborn.htm
Shanna kept her face as impassive as a firm wall against getting irked and losing it. "Because you're
famous, you think you can abuse-"
"Use, not abuse." Julia leaned on the slim black poly table between them. "Having the Axelrod name
must've been useful in keeping your captaincy, eh?"
"That was a little matter-"
"Look, we're 6 billion klicks from Earthside regulations-"
"And you and Viktor," Shanna spat back, "the oldest crew in the astronaut corps, you're going to be in
charge?"
"Not at all," Julia said mildly. "Experience does count, seniority might matter-but we have two ships, so
we have two captains. As we're all on the same scientific expedition, we have to agree on methods,
results, risks. Viktor and I have more experience than you-"
"On Mars, which is an oven compared with Pluto. Why, we've had telepresence crawlers freeze right
into the regolith, first day out! Took steam piped from the ship to get it free. I've had a lot more
experience-"
"Than we have at superlow temperatures, yes." Julia's eyes narrowed, her mouth twisted wryly. "But the
biggest problem out here, the reason for the gigabucks spent to put us here at top speed, is the bow
shock."
"If it's a threat." Shanna's words rapped out. "Earthside weather hasn't shown any changes-except for the
global warming, of course- even though the shock wall has gone from 100 AU to 42 AU in thirty-some
years."
"I know the data, for goodness' sake! But a hell of a lot of numerical simulations show big effects in the
offing. The molecular hydrogen that's leaking into the inner solar system, it'll build up and start reacting
with the free oxygen in our upper atmosphere."
"And make water, big deal. Nobody knows-"
"Plenty of energy yield there, that's the point. Heat up the upper mesosphere, and that drives big changes
below. Screws up the stratosphere temperature profile, and pretty quick that heat moves down toward
the business end, where our weather gets made."
Shanna sniffed, nose turned up. "I see where you're going with this. We should be looking mostly at the
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Benford,%20Gregory%20-%20The%20Sunborn.htm (172 of 283)8-12-2006 23:50:21
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Benford,%20Gregory%20-%20The%20Sunborn.htm
shock edge, find out what's driving it. But Pluto is key here. That's what my, our discoveries show.
Something's running all this, and it isn't stupid."
"Nobody said the problem wasn't interconnected."
"This isn't about dumb weather!" Shanna tossed her head back, her hair cascading slowly in the low
gravity.
"Okay, smart weather, then. Point is, the zand are pretty interesting. You were lucky to have stumbled
into first contact with a self-aware species."
Shanna felt her defensive walls come up. "Not stumbled-more like ferreted out," she shot back. "Some
people thought I was just imagining the whole thing, that I was faking the data, even."
"To be sure. The early criticism was unwarranted, but that's often what you'll get from Earthside. A lot
of second-guessing and tall-poppy cutting."
"Huh? I don't get it." Shanna looked perplexed.
"Aussie slang. Grow into a tall poppy, people slice you off, whittle you down to size. Put another way,
the Greeks felt their gods punished excessive hubris. It's the same thing."
"Oh, I see. Hm. Never thought of it that way."
"It helps not to take the automatic criticism personally. Save that for the important objections. The trick
is to tell them apart."
Shanna felt some of her anger ebbing away. In her defense against coming across as a hero-worshiper
she'd forgotten that Julia had endured decades of scrutiny and bad-mouthing. Julia pressed on. "But
we're moving beyond the zand, now, to contact with the movers and shakers out here-that's the main
event. And if I may offer a bit of advice on the zand, you have to get over pretty fast your claim of
exclusivity. You don't own the zand just because you discovered them. Hundreds of scientists Earthside
are now reworking their research agendas to focus on the ecology of Pluto. No, make that thousands.
Not to mention all the ink that will be wasted by the 'What does it all mean?' crowd."
"You want to have a crack at them?" Shanna resented the rebuke.
"Look." Julia sat back, shaking her head. "We can't start out like this, with a fight. We cooperate out
here or we die."
Shanna nodded, thinking furiously for a way around this woman, to hold her own. Go crying to
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Benford,%20Gregory%20-%20The%20Sunborn.htm (173 of 283)8-12-2006 23:50:21
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Benford,%20Gregory%20-%20The%20Sunborn.htm
Earthside? Not again. Try to marginalize her in future? Hard to do, on another ship. Okay, put that
aside for now, but keep looking for an advantage. "Okay."
"I know Axel-sorry, your father-spoke with you about our taking some Darksiders back with us."
"Hey, 'Axelrod' is fine. I didn't see him much as a child." She made a wry face. "Yeah, I know he wants
them. I even agreed to deliver some, if we can." She felt suddenly drained. Time to end this conversation.
Julia sat, unmoving. Shanna made herself smile slightly. Bad beginning. She looks tired. My turn to try
to lighten this up. "Hey, my father thinks we're both bad girls."
Julia made a small, thin smile. "We are, no doubt. Maybe we're both a bit, how to say, heavy-handed?
One thing you learn as captain is that there are very few problems that can't be helped by orders ending
with 'or die.'"
Shanna sighed. "I discovered that myself. My crew is irritated with me."
Julia studied her. "You've been on duty too long. You're worn down."
Shanna's eyes flashed. "Uh-uh. I and my crew are as fit for service as anybody."
"I'm sure," Julia said stiffly, getting up. "Look, you and I haven't exactly hit it off-"
"I'll say!"
"-but let's keep it to ourselves."
"Right. Professional." She cocked a wry smile. "I guess this day was a total waste of makeup."
This made Julia smile faintly, grudgingly. "It wasn't wasted on my crew, believe me. The guys have had [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]