[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
At sixteen, Victor won a scholarship to Cambridge to study
mathematics, physics, and physical electronics. He moved into
lodgings there with a fellow student named Mike who sailed boats,
climbed mountains, and whose father was a marketing director.
When his uncle moved to Africa, Victor was adopted as a second son
by Mike's family and spent his holidays at their home in Surrey or
climbing with Mike and his friends, first in the hills of the Lake
District, North Wales, and Scotland, and later in the Alps. They
even tried the Eiger once, but were forced back by bad weather.
After being awarded his doctorate, he remained at the university
for some years to further his researches in mathematical
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nucleonics, his papers on which were by that time attracting
widespread attention. Eventually, however, he was forced to come to
terms with the fact that a growing predilection for some of the
more exciting and attractive ingredients of life could not be
reconciled with an income dependent on research grants. For a while
he went to work on thermonuclear fusion control for the government,
but rebelled at a life made impossible by the meddlings of
uninformed bureaucracy. He tried three jobs in private industry but
found himself unable to muster more than a cynical indisposition
toward playing the game of pretending that annual budgets, gross
margins on sales, earnings per share, or discounted cash flows
really meant anything that mattered. And so, when he was just
turning thirty, the loner he had always been finally asserted
itself; he found himself gifted with rare and acknowledged talents,
lettered with degrees, credited with achievements, bestowed with
awards, cited with honors-and out of a job.
For a while he paid the rent by writing articles for scientific
journals. Then, one day, he was offered a free-lance assignment by
the chief R and D executive of Metadyne to help out on the
mathematical interpretation of some of their experimental work.
This assignment led to another, and before long a steady
relationship had developed between him and the company. Eventually
he agreed to join them full-time in return for use of their
equipment and services for his own researches-but under his
conditions. And so the Theoretical Studies "Department" came into
being.
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And now. . . something was missing. The something within him that
had been awakened long ago in childhood would always crave new
worlds to discover. And as he gazed out at the Vega ships. .
His thoughts were interrupted as a stream of electromagnetic
vibrations from somewhere below was transformed into the code which
alerted the Mercury's flight-control processor. The stubby wing
outside the cockpit dipped and the aircar turned, beginning the
smooth descent that would merge its course into the eastbound
traffic corridor that led to the heart of the city at two thousand
feet.
chapter five
The morning sun poured in through the window and accentuated the
chiseled crags of the face staring out, high over the center of
Houston. The squat, stocky frame, conceivably modeled on that of a
Sherman tank, threw a square slab of shadow on the carpet behind.
The stubby fingers hammered a restless tattoo on the glass. Gregg
Caldwell, executive director of the Navigation and Communications
Division of UN Space Arm, reflected on developments so far.
Just as he'd expected, now that the initial disbelief and
excitement had worn off, everyone was jostling for a slice of the
action. In fact, more than a few of the big wheels in some
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
divisions-Biosciences, Chicago, and Space Medicine, Farnborough,
for instance-were mincing no words in asking just how Navcomms came
to be involved at all, let alone running the show, since the
project obviously had no more connection with the business of
navigation than it had with communication. The down-turned corners
of Caidwell's mouth shifted back slightly in something that almost
approached a smile of anticipation. So, the knives were being
sharpened, were they? That was okay by him; he could do with a
fight. After more than twenty years of hustling his way to the top
of one of the biggest divisions of the Space Arm, he was a seasoned
veteran at infighting-and he hadn't lost a drop of blood yet. Maybe [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl chiara76.opx.pl
At sixteen, Victor won a scholarship to Cambridge to study
mathematics, physics, and physical electronics. He moved into
lodgings there with a fellow student named Mike who sailed boats,
climbed mountains, and whose father was a marketing director.
When his uncle moved to Africa, Victor was adopted as a second son
by Mike's family and spent his holidays at their home in Surrey or
climbing with Mike and his friends, first in the hills of the Lake
District, North Wales, and Scotland, and later in the Alps. They
even tried the Eiger once, but were forced back by bad weather.
After being awarded his doctorate, he remained at the university
for some years to further his researches in mathematical
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
nucleonics, his papers on which were by that time attracting
widespread attention. Eventually, however, he was forced to come to
terms with the fact that a growing predilection for some of the
more exciting and attractive ingredients of life could not be
reconciled with an income dependent on research grants. For a while
he went to work on thermonuclear fusion control for the government,
but rebelled at a life made impossible by the meddlings of
uninformed bureaucracy. He tried three jobs in private industry but
found himself unable to muster more than a cynical indisposition
toward playing the game of pretending that annual budgets, gross
margins on sales, earnings per share, or discounted cash flows
really meant anything that mattered. And so, when he was just
turning thirty, the loner he had always been finally asserted
itself; he found himself gifted with rare and acknowledged talents,
lettered with degrees, credited with achievements, bestowed with
awards, cited with honors-and out of a job.
For a while he paid the rent by writing articles for scientific
journals. Then, one day, he was offered a free-lance assignment by
the chief R and D executive of Metadyne to help out on the
mathematical interpretation of some of their experimental work.
This assignment led to another, and before long a steady
relationship had developed between him and the company. Eventually
he agreed to join them full-time in return for use of their
equipment and services for his own researches-but under his
conditions. And so the Theoretical Studies "Department" came into
being.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
And now. . . something was missing. The something within him that
had been awakened long ago in childhood would always crave new
worlds to discover. And as he gazed out at the Vega ships. .
His thoughts were interrupted as a stream of electromagnetic
vibrations from somewhere below was transformed into the code which
alerted the Mercury's flight-control processor. The stubby wing
outside the cockpit dipped and the aircar turned, beginning the
smooth descent that would merge its course into the eastbound
traffic corridor that led to the heart of the city at two thousand
feet.
chapter five
The morning sun poured in through the window and accentuated the
chiseled crags of the face staring out, high over the center of
Houston. The squat, stocky frame, conceivably modeled on that of a
Sherman tank, threw a square slab of shadow on the carpet behind.
The stubby fingers hammered a restless tattoo on the glass. Gregg
Caldwell, executive director of the Navigation and Communications
Division of UN Space Arm, reflected on developments so far.
Just as he'd expected, now that the initial disbelief and
excitement had worn off, everyone was jostling for a slice of the
action. In fact, more than a few of the big wheels in some
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
divisions-Biosciences, Chicago, and Space Medicine, Farnborough,
for instance-were mincing no words in asking just how Navcomms came
to be involved at all, let alone running the show, since the
project obviously had no more connection with the business of
navigation than it had with communication. The down-turned corners
of Caidwell's mouth shifted back slightly in something that almost
approached a smile of anticipation. So, the knives were being
sharpened, were they? That was okay by him; he could do with a
fight. After more than twenty years of hustling his way to the top
of one of the biggest divisions of the Space Arm, he was a seasoned
veteran at infighting-and he hadn't lost a drop of blood yet. Maybe [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]