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Corporation 42
It snowed for the second ten sols.If on a godforsaken planetoid that does not even have the rudiments of an atmosphere, there can be normal precipitation in general. The five-hundred-yard blades of a scoop at the bottom of the Echo Quarry, fifty miles to the northeast, did not slow down around the clock, raising clouds of icy dust to the zenith, which glittered like a crown ring in the sunlight at dawn, spreading around the area in a white shroud and finally settling at under your feet.Wilkes cleared his throat automatically. To old men like him, the white powder on the reinforced boots was like a different story, not quite as colorful and not quite as festive looking.Three nuclear bombs laid by the Tanno brothers in old workings near the Ruben Grottoes. Idiots did not listen to exhortations. Our land and the whole story.The land mines gasped so that they brought to the surface from one and a half megatons of stone chips, so inopportunely fused into the ice just at the very epicen
Corporation 43
Here is the character. It's always been that way for as long as Wilkes can remember it. When a cryoclastic flow almost flattened Fusco in 1965, Jen had to be dragged out of the cab of the excavator by almost force. Her eyes are drowsy, her head dangles like a doll's, her hands are shaking from fatigue, but all the same. Every time I sent her to eat and sleep in the dome, I had to persuade her. Not a man, flint.Wilkes obediently slowed down, watching the beacon approach. Look, hurry up.Through the halo of snow, one could barely make out how a gray shadow galloped over the crests of faults, throwing fountains of snow drifts with its drive wheels.“Be careful, Jen, where you fly like that, you will kill yourself.”The rover skidded the last hundred yards, spraying Wilks' shell with a stream of flowing ice sand so that the visor had to be wiped down.But go and she herself, you can’t see her face, of course, but in terms of the plasticity of movements - you can’t confuse it with anyone.
Corporation 44
The Bergelmir again shook with an impact, only a fan of tracers across the stern screens flashed. The unwritten rule of fire clashes in the Belt was the use of striking elements made of hardened ice - they would warm up for a couple of years in the cold local sun and finally evaporate into a vacuum. Anything is better than a civilian ore carrier getting an olive from depleted uranium in the frontal screen on a collision course. Double orbital is no joke to you, no armoplast of a strong hull can do it, with such kinetics, sprays fly in all directions, just have time to dodge. But today, you see, all sorts of rules have gone sideways.The alarm sounded at the very limit of audibility - the ears did not have time to return to normal after the pressure surge. Moving her jaw, Tsagaanbat, out of habit, listened to the answering crunch. The reverse block is the main trouble of any tracer. You can’t sit much in a hard shell, and soft cabin suits didn’t have time to equalize the pressure. Well
Corporation 45
Tsagaanbat began to mechanically look around in search of improvised means. Where can I get a banal jack a couple of ticks from the nearest garage?And most importantly, what was Hesperus thinking to himself when he gave the introduction? Idiot piece.Tsagaanbat was about to return to the capsule for a tool, when the battered servos started working. Phew, well, at least something went according to plan today!"Is it really that hard not to be late?"Shivikas. Commander, his mother so, Thomas Shivikas himself. This irritated tone of Tsagaanbat would not be confused with anything. Now it is clear why the stove did not open. Tsagaanbat was ahead."And you don't get sick."Well, you have to get into it. Just let Hesperus look in the eyes, she'll tell him everything!"What are you missing here, Commander?""I have the same question for you, Colonel."Judging by how awkwardly the former commander of the Frigg wriggled his boots, he himself was surprised by the meeting. Well, nice, if this i
Corporation 46
Today she was a strict mistress. Not according to plan, just according to the mood, so that the jetems do not relax. Sitting like this with a straight back on a sofa, half-turning, how are you there, do you watch, not looking up, do you crave her attention?They follow and crave what is there.She even like that, out of the corner of her eye, felt the growing tension on the other side of the virtreal. It was her talent, her little secret. Who cares how many slobbering mouths are now open at her thousands of kilometers away, all the other divas, for greater involvement, brought half a dozen omm to their studio to breathe in the back and portray subservience, enough for the mood. But all this palliative entourage was out of place for her - she always performed alone. And still I felt every drop of sweat and every bitten nail of the Jetems.Perhaps, another diva wouldn’t even need such a talent, what’s the point of why they need this knowledge, what exactly those who pay their bills see
Corporation 47
In attempts to explain to the stupid piece of iron, ten minutes passed. So, look, officer, she will now slowly (very slowly!) lower her left hand and take out an ID card from the pocket of her tights. No, the godless augmentation and other central pumps are not the imam. That's right, sectarian. Licensed. Everything is there, on the chip. Just don't shoot.And after all, he knows her as flaky, but all the same scoffs.And most importantly, the last anti-vaxxer south of Luavul was seen maybe a hundred years ago, even before the last pandemic of the green fungus, I also found something to hesitate.When the quacking and hooting flasher nevertheless drove off to the next threshold, to pester others, the good mood had already gone.She gave a short wave to the old fart with the binoculars in the opposite window - let him finally admire her nipples swaying under the transparent fabric of the raincoat - and slapped down the ruet, habitually springing and bouncing on the barely coping with p
Corporation 48
From the very morning the roosters roared, take it and get up. And behind them, of course, the ever-hungry master's dogs began to lie, also, I suppose, begging for food.Of course, the sun rises early over the mountains in Girkarvado, the local fishermen even earlier, so all the living creatures in the villages along the entire coast to the south of Maharashtra all year round, with a break for munsun, are used to getting up early at dawn, preventing longsteers from lying down - at least don't sleep at all.It’s really convenient - at night it drags coolness from the ocean, music comes from Russian beach, sit yourself in the virreal, while during the day it’s hot in the morning, there’s nothing to do on the street, and it’s quiet all around, only cows roam and buckets of nuts rumble around them.Frantisek usually lay down to sleep during the day, when you return in the morning from the beach, holding under your arm a pair of tails of mackerel freshly caught on a spinning rod for your m
Corporation 49
For greater understanding, he grabbed Mashka by the wrist and shook it properly.- Do you know anything about it?But she just shook her head in response.- No more than you. Silent in the net. No tremors reported, nothing."So that's why the dogs got mad?" Ah, never mind. We need to move away from the shore. If it's a wave, then... - Frantisek quickly climbed into the neti - near the shore it will move at a speed of up to a hundred. And she'll be here in ten minutes at the most. Hey! he waved his hands frantically, “get off the shore!” The wave is coming!The fishermen smiled and waved back, not understanding his cries.- And now what i can do?Frantisek angrily turned to Masha, you made this mess, you go ahead and command. But that one looked rather bewildered, as if she herself did not believe in her own perspicacity.- In theory, tsunamis - if this is it - are rarely higher than 10 meters. If anything, it is enough for us to climb to the top of the road to Mandrem and that's it, w