"Steve Perry - Aliens 01 - Earth Hive" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Steven)

“You—you look… different.”
He touched the scars on his face. “Colonial Marine surgeons. Buncha butchers.”
“Wh-what are you doing here?”
“They told me you were in this place. I figured I had to see you, once I found out you were
having the dreams, too.”
“About the monsters.”
“Yeah. I don’t sleep that well myself. Haven’t since Rim.”
“It was real, wasn’t it?”
“Oh, yeah. It was real. They had me, I’m in as long as they keep reactivating my secrecy
clause, but you were a civilian. They decided to wipe you, but it didn’t work, least not all the way.”
Billie slumped, but at the same time felt a sense of relief like none she’d ever known. It was
real! She wasn’t crazy! The dreams were memories, trying to get out!

*****

Wilks stared at the kid. Well, she wasn’t really a kid anymore, was she? Turned out to be a
nice-looking woman, even in the hospital whites and obviously stoned on whatever they gave her.
He wasn’t sure why he’d come, except that maybe she was the only other person who would
understand the dreams he kept having. He’d tried to track her down a long time ago, along with the
other marine and the civilians who’d escaped from the second bug nest, but they’d all been carefully
hidden away. Probably in some medical center like this one, or on some outpost a dozen light-years
from anywhere. Or maybe they were dead.
“Why did you come?” she asked.
He pulled his thoughts back to the young woman on the other side of the thick, clear plastic
wall. “They found what they think is the homeworld for those… things,” he said. “They’re sending
me there with some troops.”
A few seconds went past. “To destroy it?”
Wilks smiled, but it was a sour expression. “To collect a “specimen.” I think MI wants to use
the things as some kind of weapon.”
“No! You can’t let them!”
“Kid, I can’t stop them. I’m a corporal.” And a drunk and chemhead brawler, he added
mentally.
“Get me out of here,” she said.
“Huh?”
“I’m not crazy. The memories are real. You can tell them. They’re trying to convince me
everything I remember is an illusion but you know the truth. Tell them. You saved me before, Wilks,
do it again!
They’re killing me in here with the drugs, the therapy! I have to get out!”
The monitor screen next to her flowered, and a white-haired old lady appeared there, smiling.
“Discussion of therapy is not allowed,” she said. “This visit is terminated. Please leave the visiting
area immediately.”
“Wilks, please!”
Wilks found himself standing, his fists clenched.
“Please leave the visiting area immediately,” the old lady said.
Billie stood and leapt at the clear wall. She slammed her fists into the hard plastic. “Let me go!”
The door behind her opened and two large men entered. They grabbed Billie. The young
woman struggled, but it was no use. The wall began to polarize and darken.
“Hey, fuckheads, let her go!” Wilks yelled. He lunged at the wall, slammed into it. He backed
off, threw his shoulder into the wall again. The wall was unmoved.
The monitor on his side of the darkening plastic came to life. The same old woman. “This visit