"Belisarius 03 - Destiny's Shield" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

DESTINY'S SHIELD
ERIC FLINT and DAVID DRAKE


This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

Copyright (c) 1999 by Eric Flint & David Drake

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Books Original

Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471

ISBN: 0-671-57872-3

Cover art by Keith Parkinson
Interior maps by Randy Asplund

First paperback printing, June 2000

Library of Congress Catalog Number 99-22046

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Production by Windhaven Press, Auburn, NH
Printed in the United States of America

to Donald

COSMIC IRONY
Belisarius sensed a new presence and immediately understood its meaning. He saw a point of light in the void. A point, nothing more, which seemed infinitely distant. But he knew, even in the seeing, that the distance was one of time not space.
Time opened and the future came.
The point of light erupted, surged forward. A moment later, floating before Belisarius, was one of the Great Ones. The general understood, now, that he would never see them fully. Too much of their structure lay in mysterious forces which would never be seen by earthly eyes.
A new voice came to him, like Aide's, in a way, but different. FORCE FIELDS, ENERGY MATRICES. THERE IS LITTLE IN US LEFT OF OUR EARTHLY ORIGINS, AND NO FLESH AT ALL.
He saw into the being, now. Saw the glittering network of crystals which formed the Great One's-heart? Soul? And there came a sense of mirth; vast, yet whimsical.
And the general knew, then-finally-that these almost inconceivable beings were truly his own folk. He had but to look in a mirror, to see the crooked smile that would, someday, become that universe-encompassing irony-and that delight in irony. . . .

BOOKS IN THIS SERIES
An Oblique Approach
In the Heart of Darkness
Destiny's Shield
Fortune's Stroke

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