"Daniel Keys Moran - Lord November" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moran Daniel Keys)

of the day he was rescued; he took time only to shower and to feed himself.
The Source's Place was a small, empty auditorium. The doorfield was of modern make; it did not
break apart at Tyrel's approach, but merely shimmered and softened slightly. Tyrel stepped through the
field, and it dragged at him slightly, kept the hot air outside from entering with him.
Inside, in Mexico City's high summer, it was cooled to a temperature most humans, and Tyrel, found
pleasant. Tyrel was tapped, but his tap was designed for November's net, not Sol System's Source; the
Source's Place lacked the equipment to decode the signal from Tyrel's tap, and so, in consulting the
Source, here in the Source's Place, it was required that Tyrel speak aloud.
The Source spoke Anglic with a Terran accent, in a neutral voice that might have been male or
female. (On the rare occasions Tyrel had seen the Source assume a body, the body it chose was human,
but genderless.)
Today the Source wore no body; it generated a holo as Tyrel entered the Place. The holo was of an
attractive young man of Tyrel's apparent age; Tyrel wondered if the choice of gender and age were
politeness on the Source's part. "Ser November."
"Source."
Unlike most humans, the Source wasted no time. "Forty-six commercial spacecraft, swept thoroughly
by InSystem Security, orbited Earth during the entire period that you lay upon your rock. Another one
hundred and four craft orbited Earth during some part of the last seven days. One hundred and eight are
of Earth registry; the remainder are variously registered by the K'Aillae Protectorate, the Zaradin Church,
the House of November, the House of Domain, the Slissi Mutual Trade Protective Society, and the
SpaceFarer's Collective. One ship of a human society that calls itself the Wu Li, applying to become an
Earth protectorate, has been in geosynchronous orbit for the last twenty-one days. Finally, the Pristhill
Caravan has been orbiting Earth at L-5 for the last forty-four days."
Tyrel was startled. "You let a Caravan that close to Earth?"
The Source said, "The Face of Night did. I recommended against it; but the Pristhill fought with
humanity during the war with the sleem. They are one of only three Caravans that did. The Director
consulted the Shivas, and the decision was made."
"One hundred and fifty spacecraft," said Tyrel, "and one Platformer Caravan. And any one of them
might have been in communication with the being that followed me into the Great North Forest." He
shook his head. "I don't like it."
"Nor would I," the Source observed, "in your skin."
"I'll want everything you have available. The InSystem Security reports; ship's logs where available--"
The Source said dryly, "They are all available. We would hardly let a craft exit either of Sol System's
Gates if it would not let me scan its log."
Tyrel nodded. "Edit for me, then."
"I would in any regard," said the Source. "You do not process data quickly enough to assess the
available data in any useful period of time."
Tyrel smiled without amusement. "Isn't that always the case?"
The Source said politely, "For humans."

A day later, Tyrel sat on the beach in Ensenada, watching the bright blue Pacific roll up onto the
beach, and fall back. The days and nights on the rock had taken their toll; even now, relaxing in a beach
chair with a bottle of brown beer in one hand, with the hot Mexican sun warming his muscles, Tyrel felt
stiff and uncertain in his movements.
He did not much like Mexican beaches; they were too close to Mexico City, and the College, and got
too many tourists. (Tourists from elsewhere InSystem, not Out; the Face of Night did not allow
OutSystem tourists on Earth. When mere kilos of antimatter could devastate a world, the risk was too
great.) But Tyrel was not in the mood for another trip, and Ensenada was the furthest beach north of
Mexico City he could get to without crossing Southern California's Glass Desert.
(Elsewhere in the Continuing Time, humans speaking of "the war" generally mean the war with the