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Page 224
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The Northwest Territories/61.07 N 89.90 W/November 30
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The old Soviet science has come at last to a socialist ending. So far are we from excellence that we cannot build a harvester that functions as it should, let alone a computer. We cannot construct a submarine that is not more dangerous to its crew than to our enemies. And we should be grateful to Providence that the intercontinental rockets our leaders once boasted of have never been fired in anger. One Chernobyl is enough.
ACADEMICIAN VITALY CHURKIN, JOURNAL OF RUSSIAN SCIENCE
In the air above the black water there are snow flurries. Surface ice forms, cracks, breaks, and melts to form again as the northeasterly gale drives long rollers toward the shore. The height of the waves from crest to trough at times exceeds twelve feet, and when this happens the nose cone of the Device is exposed to wind and wave. The water is too shallow to let the entire Device remain submerged in such violent weather, and the steady battering of the waves is taking a toll.

 
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