"Kevin J. Anderson - Climbing Olympus" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anderson Kevin J)

She paused and poked one finger down on the opposite slippery glove, as if counting. "Let me see ... you were sent to Neryungri for several years prior to the _adin_ surgeries, correct? You had been a worker at the Baku oil fields in Azerbaijan. Your record showed that you got into many brawls, you came to work drunk more often than not. You had an accident that started a fire in one of the refinery complexes. The resulting explosion killed two people and ruined a week's oil production."
Stroganov stepped away, looking from Boris to the human in amazement. Boris felt a cold shiver crawl up his spine even through the thick polymer-insulated skin. Flickers of memory brought Boris fuzzy glimpses of this woman, dressed in a white uniform, bustling down cold tile halls, talking to him and recording his answers on an electronic lap-pad.
"How do you know all this?"
The woman responded with a short laugh. She seemed genuinely amused. "I selected the final _adin_ candidates myself. I performed some of the surgery. I _made_ you, Boris Tiban. You and your little group survived here because of the augmentations I gave you." She turned around, flexing her arm inside the crinkling suit. The glistening fabric sounded like old leather.
"I don't remember these others as well as I know you, though, Boris. You were always such a troublemaker. I did supervise the _dva_ development, but spent most of my time justifying the work to UN investigative boards. Then I came to Mars to be commissioner of Lowell Base -- the foundations of which you _adins_ graciously built for us. Thank you, Boris Petrovich."
"The _adins_ rebelled before any of that work could be done!" Boris growled. "And I told you I have no father. He abandoned me before I was born."
She was provoking him, taunting him. Perhaps she did not know him as well as she thought. Boris felt the fury boil within him. It came back to him now. "Doctor ... Dycek -- is that your name?"
She made no verbal answer, but the gleam in her gray eyes and the faint smile told him what he needed to know.
Stroganov gaped at her, then at him; yes, he remembered her, too -- the deceptive warmth and light inside the Neryungri research hospital, the smell of chemicals, the slice of pain, the dullness of medication, the promises of freedom ... the long and wasting exile on Mars.
"It is dangerous to taunt me, Dr. Dycek." Boris brought his metal staff up. "I should just smash open your helmet. For what you did to me, and to all of us!"
Even that didn't bother her. "Do what you will." She stood up and wandered deeper into the grotto like a curious explorer. The voice from her speakerpatch followed, transmitted clearly even through the suit. "My work on Mars is done, and I am to be packed up and shipped home to Earth."
Crouching on a blocky lump of worn, pitted rock, Stroganov nodded, his lips curling in a small smile. "So now you know how it feels to be obsolete yourself. What a beautiful Russian irony."
Dycek touched things, looked at the places in their tunnels where Stroganov and Nastasia made love, where Nikolas had slept. She stared at the meager stash of hoarded supplies and equipment they had taken from the original UNSA encampment. It made Boris furious.
"We thought the _adins_ were dead," she said. "It had been so long, and we found no evidence of you anywhere. Even the _dvas_ had never encountered you, though they have some sort of folktale about a man of the mountains."
That pleased Boris, and he turned away to keep her from seeing his satisfaction, though this human doctor probably could not read expressions on an _adin_ face.
"In fact, Boris, if you had not attacked that pumping station, we would never have had a clue. Your secret would have been safe forever." She turned her back to him, as if shielding herself with the boxlike oxygen regenerator that spilled its chemical fumes into their grotto. With clumsy gloved fingers, Dycek picked up a battered box of sealed high-protein rations that Boris had never allowed the _adins_ to eat. She turned it over to read the scuffed label.
Losing control, Boris leaped in front of her and held up his staff as a barricade. With his other hand he slapped the package out of her grip. "Stop! Those are ours." Boris stared into her narrowed eyes that were distorted by the transparent faceplate of the helmet. She placed her hands on her hips, waiting for him to say something else, but the words volatilized from his throat, and he clamped his thick lips shut. She had made him helpless in the face of his outrage.
"Tell me why you are so angry," she continued, sounding puzzled. "We set you free of your labor camp. You signed all the papers. You knew what you were getting into, and you leaped at the chance. You and your clinging friend ... Nikolas? Was that the body I saw at the pumping station? Yes, I remember him now."
She brushed past Boris, peering at the walls of the grotto. For a moment, he was relieved that Stroganov had chosen to scratch his rambling journal record on the deeper walls, away from her prying eyes. "We gave you a world to tame and the freedom to do it. Better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven, is that not correct? What more could you want?"
All the clever words tumbled in Boris's throat, clambering over each other to come out. Where was the tough, charismatic leader who had conquered Mars? He had made his speeches over and over to the _adins_ -- but now that he had the proper target audience before him, he was acting like an idiot. Boris clenched his armored hand so tightly that he actually felt the nails against his thickened palm.
His anger finally burst out, and Boris shouted in a way that overrode his training for shallow breathing and conservation of exhaled moisture. "You created us for Mars -- and then you took Mars away! We no longer belong down there!"
He gestured out beyond the cave walls. In his mind he held a picture of the growing lichen, the tracings of frost on the lava rock, the thickening air in the lowlands. Dr. Dycek frowned at him. He saw a weary patience in her gray eyes, which made him even angrier. She did not understand anything at all about what the terraforming work had done to the _adins_.
"We watch our world slipping away day by day with each new _dva_ establishment, with each water-recovery station, with every normal human setting foot on our planet! And you ask me why we are so angry?"
"Why is she here?" Stroganov asked him, pestering. "Find out why she is here."
Boris looked down at Dr. Dycek. He shifted the titanium staff to his other hand. "Yes, why? Did you come to hunt us down? You should have brought some bodyguards with you if you meant to wipe us out once and for all! We will fight like wolves and sell our lives dearly." He forced a laugh.
Dr. Dycek sat down again. "No, Boris. I just wanted to see if I could find the _adins_ before I was sent back to Earth. No one else knows I have come."
A bright new idea shot through his head like a cannon going off in a May Day parade. The _dva_ pumping station had been nothing, even the death of Nikolas had not been a great enough sacrifice. "Then the time has come to send the humans a message they cannot ignore, to let them know we do not want them on Mars." He leaned closer to her again, forcing her back. "I will kill you and show them that the _adins_ can still survive better than humans. We will dump your body just outside their inflatable base. They will get the message."
Dr. Dycek just looked up at him and sighed. "Why bloody your hands? No need to add another murder to your conscience."
Boris laughed at that. He felt easier now, more in control. "Another murder would make little difference to my conscience, Dr. Dycek." He chose not to hear her other words, since the bright vision shone so clearly in his mind. He could feel powerful with a simple act, let it wash away his helplessness. He hefted the metal staff over his head, ready to swing it down upon the curved faceplate.
"It is the way with all creatures," he said. "Those who cannot adapt to their environment must die. So here, breathe the clear, cold air of Mars -- just as we do every day. It will be a grand gesture in the name of the _adins_!"
Dr. Dycek tilted her head up, as if actually welcoming it. As well she should, he thought, after what she had done to them.
"Boris, stop it!" It was Cora's voice, clear and strong.
She made her way out of the shadows from the back of the cave, moving with ponderous steps because of her obviously pregnant body. "Must you always make a spectacle of everything? That is how we lost Nikolas."
"It was justified!" Boris said defensively. But the tense moment crumbled around him. By invoking Nikolas's name, she had thrown a net around him, reminding all the _adins_ of Boris's recent failure.
Dr. Dycek's attention flicked away from him as soon as Cora stepped into the light. Cora panted, then winced at internal pain. As if the outburst had expended her, she sat down, gripping her abdomen.
"She's pregnant!" Dr. Dycek said, with the first true emotion Boris had heard out of her. "How? That is impossible!"
For a moment, Boris found her comment so ludicrous he could not answer. "_How_?" Stroganov asked with a chuckle. "Does a doctor not know how a woman gets pregnant? A remarkable example of education in the Sovereign Republics!"
"Perhaps your sterilization procedures were not one hundred percent effective," Boris said, impaling her with the words as a substitute for his staff.
Dr. Dycek's entire attitude altered, and she gave her full attention to Cora instead of Boris. "But your baby will die if it is born up here. It cannot breathe. It will have none of your adaptations. Just a normal human child."
"We already know that!" Boris shouted. "Why do you think -- "
"This changes everything," Dr. Dycek said, ignoring him again. Again! "An _adin_ having a child. The first human born on Mars!" Flustered at first, then overwhelmed with awe, her voice rose with command as if they were her slaves -- just as she had spoken in the training and therapy sessions before they left Earth.
"We will have to take you in the rover vehicle back down to Lowell Base," she said to Cora. "I can pressurize the cabin slowly so you will acclimate. That should take care of the low-altitude difficulties you might suffer. I will remain in my environment suit."
Boris felt his control of the other _adins_ slipping like red dust through his fingertips. And the hatred rose up in him, white hot. Stroganov nodded, also looking at the suited figure with a new enthusiasm.
"Do you hear what she is saying?" Boris said. "You cannot live down there, in the heavy air!"
Dr. Dycek scowled at him. "Of course she can, Boris. You all can. You just need to take the time to adapt."
"No, that's impossible," Boris insisted. But he felt like an actor whose part has already been played, but refuses to leave the stage. Dr. Dycek was obviously much more interested in Cora and her cursed child.
Cora stepped forward, so intent with new hope and excitement that she did not try to hide her swollen appearance. "You can save the baby?"
"If we get you back to the base. We have medical equipment there. Nothing specifically for babies -- who ever expected this? But, yes, we can do it." Inside the helmet, she nodded with encouragement.
"This is indeed good news, Boris!" Stroganov said. "We thought your baby would certainly die."
Boris released his hold on Dr. Dycek's arm and turned to face his companions in the cave. "Yes, save the child! And then what? Then everything will be perfect? Then all our problems will be solved? No! Then the humans will know where we are. They will come here and watch us die off, one by one. They will make a documentary program about us, the great failed _adin_ experiment. Like animals in a Martian zoo? Wouldn't that be marvelous?"