"Stephen Goldin - But As A Soldier, For His Country" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goldin Stephen)

and rest will be the best medicine. Accordingly, Harker sleeps.
The next day, there is a general briefing for all the resurrectees, piped in via TV to all their bedsides since they are
still incapacitated. The briefing explains some of the background of the war, how the United States became involved,
and which side they are fighting on. Then there is a review of the war to date and a quick, nondetailed discussion of
strategy. The colonel in charge closes by thanking these men for volunteering for this most unusual and elite project,
and by expressing confidence that they will be successful. Harker listens politely, then turns the set off and goes to
sleep when the briefing is over.
Next day begins the callisthenics. Being in cold sleep for seven years has taken the tone out of the men’s muscles,
and they will have to get back into shape before going out onto the battlefield once again. In the exercise yard, Harker
sees Gary and waves to him. They eat lunch together, congratulating one another on having survived the treatment.
(Only five out of three hundred have not pulled through, and the project is considered a success.) Gary is as
flamboyant as ever, and expresses optimism that this war will be over soon, and then they can return to civilian life.
They spend five days more in preparation, then go out into the field. War has not changed in seven years, Harker
notices. The guns are a bit smaller, and the artillery shoots a bit farther and with more accuracy, but the basic pattern
is unchanged. The jungles of Africa are not greatly different from those of Asia where he learned his craft. The fears
he had about being a stranger in the future when he awoke are proving pointless, and gradually his depression wears
off. He fights with all the skill he learned in the last war, and learns a few new tricks besides.
The war continues for ten months, then finally breaks. Negotiations come through, the fighting ends. Celebrations
are held all over the world at this latest outbreak of peace, but the joyousness is not completely echoed in the ranks of
the soldiers. The resurrectees are used to war, and the thought of learning new peacetime skills makes them nervous.
They know there is nothing out there in the world for them. They would be welcomed as veterans, but they would be
strangers to this time. War is the only world they know.
Ninety-five percent of the surviving resurrectees, including Harker and Gary, sign up for another term of
hibernation, to be awakened which needed to fight.

Harker took the other soldier down behind some rubble and talked with her. “On our side?”
 The woman nodded. “Have been for the last, oh, hundred years or so. Where …” She cut off abruptly. She’d
been about to ask, “Where have you been all that time?” then realised the answer. “It doesn’t matter too much, I
suppose,” she continued. “They can always replay his tape if they need him.”
“How much else don’t I know?” Harker demanded.
“This is a civil war. Humans and aliens on both sides. You can’t tell what side a person’s on just by his race.”
Like Asia and Africa, Harker thought.
“About the only way you can tell is by the armtag.” She pointed at her own, and at Harker’s. “We’re green.
They’re red.”
“What’s to keep a red soldier from putting on a green armtag?”
The woman shrugged. “Nothing, I suppose. Except he’d likely get shot by his own side.”
“Unless they knew him by sight.”
The soldier shook her head. “No. They copied some of our tapes, which means they’ve been able to duplicate
some of our personnel. Don’t trust anyone just because you’ve seen them before. Look for the armtag.”
Bolts of energy went hurtling by their temporary shelter. “Here comes the action,” Harker said. “Let’s move.”
But before they could, the ground exploded in front of them.

The next resurrection is easier, the doctors having learned from experience. But it is still a shock.
Harker awakes to cold this time. He notices it even before the white of the hospital room. Not that the building
isn’t heated, but there is a chill in the atmosphere that pervades everything.
The nurse that stands beside him is older than the one he had last time. Her white blouse is not quite so crisp, and
she wears a skirt that goes clear to the floor. It’s a wonder she doesn’t trip over it. The chill is a part of her, too; she is
not as friendly as that previous nurse. She tells him brusquely that he had been hibernating for fifteen years, and that
the war is now in Antarctica.
He takes the news with quiet astonishment. Of all the places in the world where he’d thought war would never be,