Читать книгу Voyage - Stephen Baxter - Страница 28

Gregory Dana had spent the day at a meeting on rendezvous techniques for the upcoming Skylab missions. He came across a number of Houston people gathered in the hallway, before a notice board.

‘What’s going on?’

‘Don’t you know? We’re going to Mars. Nixon has confirmed it at last. Look at this.’ They made way for him at the board. At first Dana could see nothing of interest to him on the board: an offer of tickets for the Cowboys vs Dolphins Superbowl, classes in TM and acupuncture (posted here, in NASA HQ!), and a bright orange sticker saying simply JESUS HEALS. But there, crowded out by the trivia, was a closely-printed piece of headed paper. It was a statement from Nixon, and a subsidiary statement from Michaels, the new NASA Administrator. Some supporting press briefing material was pinned up too: a ‘Mars mission digest,’ with simple question-and-answer chunks of information about the mission, and a few spectacular artist’s impressions of the mission’s various phases. There were even a few outlines of the modes which had been evaluated and discarded.

There was no mention of Dana’s Venus swingby mode.

Since that apocalyptic Phase A meeting in Huntsville back in July, Dana had heard almost nothing of the development of the Mars options. And this was the first he’d learned of the final decision – along with the Headquarters cleaning staff, and the rest of the nation. It was clear, now, that he’d been excluded from the decision-making process since July.

What could he do about it? Write another letter to Fred Michaels?

He felt the injustice, the stupidity of it, burn a hole in his stomach.

Well, it was nothing to do with him any more. Maybe, at least, Jim would be able to realize some of his own dreams, in the slow unwinding of this decision.

Dana tucked his briefcase under his arm and walked away.