《The Star Hole》作者： - Bob Buckley【EPUB】

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The Star HoleThere once were three princes of Serendip who went out on a search for . . .BOB BUCKLEYLaris Howard faced a problem. He was still breathing heavily from the climb though for a colony-dweller he was in better shape than most.His advanced degree in lunar studies should have helped him throw off the feeling of unreality the view gave him but it didnt.quotSo there it is.quot Howard spoke softly into his helmet mike as though he were revealing a fragile bit of art-work a wisp of blown glass or asculpted ice dream floating just out-side the celebrated zero-Gstudio port of Sky Station Six not a black pit punched into the bleak lunar sur-face. There was a certain beauty in the scene it was true buta hole no matter how vast is still a hole and this one was dominated by the de-ceptively rounded hills rising about the jagged gap topsglowing golden runneled bases drenched in crepe shadows as sunrise swept over them.quotHow many diedquot Dr. Jackson asked finally.quotSix men and the cybernoid mounted in the crawler.quotquotRegulationsquot Behind the blank gleam of the helmet glass Howard thought he could read anger in the old mans face but he couldnt besure in the dim light.quotFollowed to the letter.quot Howard paused staring down into the five-ki-lometer-wide pit and feeling the emptiness both inside and outsidehis suit. To his right Marian stirred her voice putting words to his dis-organized thoughts.quotA surprisequot she murmured quota lunar surprise that proved to be the final laugh for six young reasonably intelligent men. Men who forgot thatlife is eighty percent predictable and twenty percent pie in the face. They had driven far enough away from their blast site to suit the deskjock-eys who make up regulations but their last transmission was a routine ignition report and when the rescue squad made it out to themall they found was this rather overdone cav-ity.quotquotBut a twenty-kilo charge of plas-tic wouldnt have made a mess like this even if the crawlers pile had been triggered off in some impos-sible way.quot Jackson knelt at the rim of the pit sifting the brownish rubble of dust and rock through his gauntleted fingers.Howard finished his scan of the jagged pit rim. quotIll bring up the crawler. Its obvious that well have to go down into that if were going tofind a cause. Marian you come along.quotquotIll try to find us a sheer drop to play the cable downquot Jackson vol-unteered. Although the old man was the senior scientist of the partyand the foremost selenologist on the moon he treated command routine casually. Marian and Howard both knew what needed to be doneand who could do a particular task best without the ritual enforcement of a dominance hierarchy.Howard grunted his agreement and shambled down the