"James P. Hogan - Giants 3 - Giant's Star" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hogan James P)

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before stopping at another door, which was closed. A series of partitions extending from floor to
ceiling divided the space on either side into a half-dozen or so narrow cubicles facing inward
from left and right. As they moved along the corridor, they found that all the cubicles were
identical, each containing some kind of recliner, luxuriously upholstered in red, facing inward
toward the corridor and surrounded by a metal framework supporting panel inlays of a multicolored
crystalline material and a bewildering layout of delicately constructed equipment whose purpose
could have been anything. There was still no sign of life.
"Welcome aboard," the voice said. "If you'd each take a seat, we can begin."
"Who's doing the talking?" Caldwell demanded, looking around and overhead. "We'd
appreciate the courtesy of your identifying yourself."
"My name is VISAR," the voice replied. "But I'm only the pilot and cabin crew. The people
you're expecting will be here in a few minutes."
They were probably through the door at the far end, Hunt decided. It seemed odd. The voice
reminded him of his first meeting with the Ganymeans, inside the Shapieron shortly after it had
arrived in orbit over Ganymede. On that occasion, too, contact with the aliens had been through a
voice functioning as interpreter, which turned out subsequently to belong to an entity called
zoi~c
-- a supercomputer complex distributed through the ship and responsible for the operation
of most of its systems and functions. "VISAR," he called out. "Are you a computer system built
into this vehicle?"
"You could say that," VISAR answered. "It's about as near as we're likely to get. A small
extension is there. The rest is scattered all over Thurien plus a whole list of other planets and
places. You've got a link into the net."
"Are you saying this ship isn't operating autonomously?" Hunt asked. "You're interacting
between here and Thurien in realtime?"
"Sure. How else could we have turned around the messages from Jupiter?"
Hunt was astounded. VISAR'S statement implied a communications network distributed across
star systems and operating with negligible delays. It meant that the point-to-point transfers, at
least of energy, that he had often talked about with Paul Shelling at Navcomms were not only
proved in principle, but up and running. No wonder Caldwell was looking stunned; it put Navconims
back in the Stone Age.
Hunt realized that Danchekker was now immediately behind him, peering curiously around,
with Heller and Packard just inside the door. Where was Lyn? As if to answer his unvoiced
question, her voice spoke from inside one of the cubicles. "Say, it feels great. I could stand
this for a week or two, maybe." He turned and saw that she was already lying back in one of the
recliners and apparently enjoying it. He looked at Caldwell, hesitated for a moment, then moved
into the adjacent cubicle, turned, and sat down, allowing his body to sink back into the
redliner's yielding contours. It felt right for human rather than Ganymean proportions, he noted
with interest. Had they built the whole craft in a week specifically for the occasion? That would
have been typical of Ganymeans too.
A warm, pleasant feeling swept over him again and made him feel drowsy, causing his head
to drop back automatically into the concave rest provided. He felt more relaxed than he could ever
remember and suddenly didn't care if he never had to get up again. There was a vague impression of
the woman-he couldn't recall her name-and the Secretary of something-or-other from Washington
floating in front of him as if in a dream and gazing down at him curiously. "Try it. You'll like