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„THE LIGHT WAS so brillant that for a full minute Norton had to keep his eyes clenched tightly shut. Then he risked opening them, and stared through barely parted lids at the wall a few centimeters in front of his face. He blinked several times, waited for the involuntary tears to drain away, and then turned slowly to behold the dawn.



He could endure the sight for only a few seconds; then he was forced to close his eyes again. It was not the glare that was intolerable-he could grow accustomed to that-but the awesome spectacle of Rama, now seen for the first time in its entirety.



Norton had known exactly what to expect; nevertheless, the sight had stunned him. He was seized by a spasm of uncotrollable trembling; his hands tightened around the rungs of the ladder with the violence of a drowning man clutching at a life belt. The muscles of his forearms began to knot, yet at the same time his legs-already fatigued by hours of steady climbing-seemed about to give way. If it had not been for the low gravity, he might have fallen.



Then his training took over, and he began to apply the first remedy for panic. Still keeping his eyes closed, and trying to forget the monstrous spectacle around him, he started to take deep, long breaths, filling his lungs with oxygen and washing the poisons of fatigue out of his system.



Presently he felt much better, but he did not open his eyes until he had performed one more action, It took a major effort of will to force his right hand to open- he had to talk to it as though it were a disobedient child-but presently he manuvered it down to his waist, unclipped the safety belt from his harness, and he hooked the buckle to the nearest rung. Now, whatever happened, he could not fall…”


muza


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wykorzystano fragment powieści "Spotkanie z Ramą" Arthura C. Clarke'a