"Baxter, Stephen - On The Orion Line" - читать интересную книгу автора (Baxter Stephen)

I crammed my legs into my suit.

Jeru complied, stripping off her robe to reveal a hard, scarred body. But she was frowning.
"Why not heavier armor?"

For answer, Till picked out a gravity-wave handgun from the gear he had retrieved. Without
pausing he held it to Pael’s head and pushed the fire button.

Pael twitched.

Till said, "See? Nothing is working. Nothing but bio systems, it seems." He threw the gun
aside.

Pael closed his eyes, breathing hard.

Till said to me, "Test your comms."

I closed up my hood and faceplate and began intoning, "One, two, three . . ." I could hear
nothing.

Till began tapping at our backpacks, resetting the systems. His hood started to glow with
transient, pale blue symbols. And then, scratchily, his voice started to come through. ". . .
Five, six, seven–can you hear me, tar?"

"Yes, sir."

The symbols were bioluminescent. There were receptors on all our suits–photoreceptors,
simple eyes–which could "read" the messages scrawled on our companions’ suits. It was a
backup system meant for use in environments where anything higher-tech would be a
liability. But obviously it would only work as long as we were in line of sight.

"That will make life harder," Jeru said. Oddly, mediated by software, she was easier to
understand.

Till shrugged. "You take it as it comes." Briskly, he began to hand out more gear. "These are
basic field belt kits. There’s some medical stuff: a suture kit, scalpel blades, blood-giving sets.
You wear these syrettes around your neck, Academician. They contain painkillers, various
gen-enged med-viruses . . . no, you wear it outside your suit, Pael, so you can reach it. You’ll
find valve inlets here, on your sleeve, and here, on the leg." Now came weapons. "We should
carry handguns, just in case they start working, but be ready with these." He handed out
combat knives.

Pael shrank back.

"Take the knife, Academician. You can shave off that ugly beard, if nothing else."

I laughed out loud, and was rewarded with a wink from Till.

I took a knife. It was a heavy chunk of steel, solid and reassuring. I tucked it in my belt. I was
starting to feel a whole lot better.