"Stephen Goldin - Herds" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goldin Stephen)

before it ended. He stared for a long time at the arrest warrant
before he finally arose and picked it up off the desk.


CHAPTER III
 Back through empty space his mind raced toward a
rendezvous with his body. The speed of light was a laughable
limitation, easily surpassed and outdistanced. The fabric of
space warped and twisted around him, trying hard to conserve
its own rules while he heedlessly broke every one. He traveled at
the speed of thought, if indeed any speed could be assigned to it.
Pinpoints of stars blurred into streaks and smudges against a
gray background. Back, back to Zarti. Yellow star, fourth planet,
second continent, Thirteenth City, three-story building at the
southeast edge, second floor, western corridor, third room.

UNION.

The return of physical sensation was slow, as it always was.
First the extremities, a tingling in hooves and hands. Then the
feeling crept inward along the arteries and nerves towards the
body and upward through the long neck to the head. At first a
warmth spread through his being at the reunion, but then he felt
a sharp pain as the machine that had been artificially
maintaining his bodily functions shut itself off. It was the birth
trauma all over again, greatly magnified by the size and
complexity of his adult body. He gasped and shuddered, and
those two involuntary actions were sufficient to start his
auto-nomic nervous system working for itself once more. The
weight of his body returned to him, along with the rest of the
physical reality of his surroundings.

Garnna slowly raised a hand and pushed up the lid to the
coffin-like Exploration box in which his body reposed. Light
streamed in on him, and he had to shut his eyes tightly for a
moment to keep out the glare. Then he opened them a crack to
let his pupils adjust to the brilliance. He pushed the lid all the
way up and tried to move the rest of his body.

It was not easy. The box had been designed to keep him alive
while his mind was Exploring, and the dictates of efficiency
precluded most attempts at providing some comfort for the
inhabitant as well. The walls pressed tightly against him and the
wires that were attached to different portions of his body kept
getting in the way.

A head peeked over the side of the machine, outlined in black
against the light background and making it impossible to
discern the facial features. A hand reached over and gripped his,
providing a strong and helpful leverage point from which to