Deadly Whiteness. Alex Nork

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СКАЧАТЬ he shook hands with a dozen of handsome sun-tanned officers in such elegant and perfectly ironed uniform that one could think that they were getting ready to take part in an expensive television show. And the cruiser itself over which they had a half-an-hour excursion appeared to be a fantastic work of technology.

      His brother was showing and explaining…

      Invisible under the middle of the stern part defense rocket complex was ready to destroy anything flying in the air in the radius of a few hundred miles.

      – Two such cruisers can close the access from air on all Atlantic or Pacific coast of the country, – said Pete contentedly.

      – And how many such cruisers are there all in all?

      – At present one, but soon there will be more.

      The attacking complex distributed in several parts of the great ship.

      – It can destroy completely all strategic objects, well, for example, of Iraq and Syria, altogether. Not only military: electric power stations, bridges – it is sufficient for all this as well.

      – Pete, once you already hit an air-raid shelter with children in Iraq.

      – And this became a very serious reason for further perfection of exactness. Not a single rocket launched from here will decline from its aim. Don’t think, Marc, please, that military men have some different blood flowing in their veins. – The general took his brother’s arm and, lowering his voice, said very contentedly: – I will disclose to you a secret. Now after tests which we held not far from here the cruiser has another unique kind of armament. Not a single enemy’s submarine can approach to attack us. It will have been discovered in advance, but the main thing, it will be destroyed by a special manned rocket. And that with hundred percent probability, that is for sure.

      – Have rockets learned not only to fly but to sail under water?

      – They could do it before. But now the submarine cannot escape them.

      – Will it be exploded?

      – No. Directed attack of the crew with gamma-rays. Techniques will not suffer, and the people will perish almost immediately.

      – As a biologist I am quite pleased to hear this.

      – But any submariner, whether Russian or Chinese, would have reacted differently.

      – Would he be happy, Pete?

      – Don’t get excited. Yes, he would be happy, can you imagine it? Death in water is much more terrible that death on land. And it is still more terrible under water. Because in case of a usual defeat the submarine does not perish all at once. The tragedy is that it will not be able to get out of the deep. In many compartments people remain who are alive. I could tell you what those who inspect the raised lost-submarine see, but I won’t.

      Professor thoughtfully tucked at his beard.

      – It is difficult for me to judge, my dear brother, but listening to you one gets an impression that Pentagon will soon get a Noble Prize for humanism and love for mankind. – Suddenly, having thought about something, he raised his head, and his eyes were dark with anger. – And what about the ocean? You were just testing some awful things!

      – Don’t worry, please. Yes, in the radius of half a mile your fishes have been severely irradiated. But this is much less than a drop in a glass of water. Besides, just remember, your colleagues in the laboratory pitilessly cut up mice and rabbits for experiment. Others doom kind and meek dolphins to captivity in oceanariums. And so on.

      – We do it for the sake of… eh…

      – Ha! Now let’s go to my place. We do our job for the same purpose, I can assure you.

      – All right, – said the Professor in a reconciliating tone. – So everything is superb here?

      – Decidedly everything! This ship is more expensive and more modern than any space program of NASA.

      Cabin-saloon of the general also appeared to be superb.

      – They could have saved tax-payers’ money here, – grumbled the Professor, having examined this “de luxe’.

      – Even our sailors have comfortable lodging. Believe me, Marc, in reality there is nothing extra here. People must live in the ocean for months on end. And work with extremely complicated and very dangerous technology. We cannot afford even the slightest psychological tiredness, and moreover, irritation over daily discomforts. – The general pressed some button, and less than in a minute the steward rolled in a cart covered with napkins with plates and champagne in a silver bucket in the middle. – Let us now drink for us. No, – he looked at the photo on the wall, – first, for our father.

      Time, it is always short for everything good.

      It is already time to part.

      – Pete, can’t I fill up my ship here. Then I would not, have to drop to some local island port in a week.

      – I’ve got plenty of fuel, but it is not comfortable to pump it from the cruiser. Just twenty miles from here is our small ship. It’s continuing some experiments. I’ll give an order, they will supply you with fuel.

      Then professor waived to his brother from the boat, going back to their modest ship. He started feeling sad.

      In his childhood he had never had this feeling. Maybe because he had to help his father all the time, to take care of his younger brother, to study as well as he could to enter the University. And there he had to be among the first, not bothering, due to his scholarship, his already elderly parent.

      When did this uncomprehensible sadness start to appear? After his father’s death?..

      No, if old people go away like this, with clear consciousness, quiet, already prepared for the other world, their death causes quite a different feeling in those around them. Different… something which one sometimes experiences here, in the ocean. It suddenly pierces one with a feeling that life cannot disappear. That the real world is much larger than the one people live in because of habit, clutching at the small pieces of the fleeting, and thus limit themselves foolishly and hopelessly. He also notices such things in himself, and with age this mess of the great and the petty is beginning to bring sadness.

      – You are all the time thinking about something, Marc, – noted Christian when they were finishing their tea in the crew’s headquarters. – About this strange skeleton?

      – About this too.

      – I can’t get it out of my head. Do you remember how two years ago we were dragging back to the ocean a female blue whale?

      – The one which threw herself to the shore?

      – Yes. We dragged her, but then she started dying on approximately the same depth. Sharks ate it up very quickly, but then we could watch for six days different small fish which sailed there. And how many new data we got, what wonderful specimen we managed to catch.

      – Add here, Chris, that the female was much smaller than the cachalot, – added the professor rather absent-mindedly. – And it would be interesting to see the squid who could manage to kill it.

      His СКАЧАТЬ