"Alastair Reynolds - Signal to Noise" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reynolds Alastair)

kind. No one ever had a bad word to say for Andrea on that score. Kind and
considerate, to a fault.

So what was he waiting for?

“You can make the switch,” Mick said.

There was less to it than he’d been expecting. It was no worse than
the involuntary muscular jolt he sometimes experienced in bed, just before
dozing off to sleep.

But suddenly he was in a different body.

“Hi,” Joe said. “How’re you feeling, matey?”

Except it was the other Joe speaking to him now: the Joe who
belonged to the world where Andrea hadn’t died. The original Joe was on
the other side of the reality gap.

“I feel…” But when Mick tried speaking, it came out hopelessly
slurred.

“Give it time,” Joe said. “Everyone has trouble speaking to start with.
That’ll come quickly.”

“Can’t shee. Can’t see.”

“That’s because we haven’t switched on your glasses. Hold on a tick.”

The gray-green void vanished, to be replaced by a view of the interior
of the lab. The quality of the image was excellent. The room looked
superficially the same, but as Mick looked around—sending the muscle
signals through the nervelink to’ move the body of the other Mick—he
noticed the small details that told him this wasn’t his world. Joe was wearing
a different checked shirt, smudged white trainers instead of Converse
sneakers. In this version of the lab, Joe had forgotten to turn the calendar
over to the new month.

Mick tried speaking again. The words came easier this time.

“I’m really here, aren’t I.”

“How does it feel to be making history?”

“It feels… bloody weird, actually. And no, I’m not making history.
When you write up your experiment, it won’t be me who went through first.
It’ll be you, the way it was always meant to be. This is just a dry run. You can
mention me in a footnote, if that.”

Joe looked unconvinced. “Have it your way, but—“