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Автор Стеф Пенни

Under a Pole Star

Also By

Also by Stef Penney

The Tenderness of Wolves

The Invisible Ones

Title

Copyright

First published in Great Britain in 2016 by

Quercus Editions Ltd

Carmelite House

50 Victoria Embankment

London EC4Y 0DZ

An Hachette UK company

Copyright © 2016 Stef Penney

Map and illustrations copyright © 2016 Liane Payne

The moral right of Stef Penney to be

identified as the author of this work has been

asserted in accordance with the Copyright,

Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

Lines from Back to Methuselah by George Bernard Shaw

reproduced by kind permission of the Society of Authors,

on behalf of the Bernard Shaw Estate.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication

may be reproduced or transmitted in any form

or by any means, electronic or mechanical,

including photocopy, recording, or any

information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the publisher.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available

from the British Library

HB ISBN 978 1 78648 116 0

TPB ISBN 978 1 78648 117 7

EBOOK ISBN 978 1 78648 118 4

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters,

businesses, organizations, places and events are

either the product of the author’s imagination

or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to

actual persons, living or dead, events or

locales is entirely coincidental.

Typeset by CC Book Production

You can find this and many other great books at

Dedication

For Mr Van

North Polar Regions, 1893

Epigraph

‘You see things; and you say “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?”’

George Bernard Shaw

Contents

Prologue

PART ONE: A PEG, SHAPED LIKE A WHALE

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

PART TWO: VEGA IN LYRA

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

PART THREE: REGELATION

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

PART FOUR: ARCTURUS IN BOÖTES

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

PART FIVE: POLARIS

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

PART SIX: THE CONCRETE SEA

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

PART SEVEN: THULE

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

PART EIGHT: DESTRUCTIVE INTERFERENCE

Chapter 52

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

PART NINE: THUBAN IN DRACO

Chapter 55

Chapter 56

Chapter 57

Chapter 58

Chapter 59

Chapter 60

Chapter 61

Epilogue

A Glossary of Inuit words

Acknowledgements

Prologue

McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey, 40˚0’N, 74˚35’W

April 1948

The aeroplane, a modified Douglas C-47 Skytrain, is a fat, shining cigar of aluminium, brilliant in the sun. The word Arcturus is stencilled on the fuselage in a confident upward sweep. The journalist has done his homework, but there are things he does not know: for example, that grease monkeys spent days polishing the skin, and that the name has been added especially for this trip – a celestial name deemed more heroic and appropriate than the boring clutch of numbers on its tail. The Skytrain was a bomber throughout the war, but now it is carrying an overtly peaceable cargo; there are air force men, it is true – weary-eyed, beribboned and grizzled – but there are also scientists from several universities, a camera crew from ABC, the journalist.