"Rudy Rucker - Postsingular Outtakes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rucker Rudy)

3: Heavenly Version of Mirrorbrane. She was in the Mirrorbrane, with Chu and Ond beside her,
floating amidst gauzy white mist. Yes, the place looked like heaven, with mounds and castles of clouds
and pyramidal rays of light, but the three of them were the only angels here. Had they died? Where were
the Mirrorbraners? And where was Bixie?

Over and over Jil called her daughter’s name until finally —

“I’m right here,” came the sweet voice from a cute, puffy cloud directly overhead. A moan of relief
escaped Jil; she stretched up her arms and Bixie dropped into her arms, nearly knocking her down.

“It’s fun here,” said Bixie, leaning against Jil’s shoulder, her arm around Jil’s waist. “I can fly. I’m glad
you came, Mom. I was lonely.”

“I want to take you home now,” said Jil, hoping this were possible. The orphids on Jil’s skin were
inactive, if they were still present at all. Certainly the links to Earth’s orphidnet weren’t working here. So
how would she access that magic blue spaghetti code?

Anxiously Jil regarded Ond and Chu. They were peering down through a hole in the clouds at a
landscape not all that far below them.

“Hi, Bixie,” said Chu, glancing over at them. He favored Bixie with one of his rare smiles.

“Can we go back?” Jil asked Chu.

“Probably,” said Chu. “I know the code by heart now. I simplified it. The blue spaghetti pattern was just
a special kind of knot.” He rummaged in his pants pocket and found a piece of string. “I can make the
knot. It’ll take a minute.”

Leaning over the gap in the clouds, Jil saw a town something like San Francisco, as if seen from an
airplane heading in for a landing. The San Francisco Bay geography was the same, but the city sprawl
was not so far advanced. The cars were big and curvy, and the “angel” Mirrorbraners looked to be
regular people in colorful clothes.

“It almost looks like an earlier time,” mused Ond. “Like the Twentieth Century. We’ll fly down and
check it all out, Chu.”

“Won’t they chase after us?” asked Chu. His fingers were weaving his piece of string into an intricate
Celtic-style knot.

“I’m guessing that we’ll be the ones who look like angels in the Mirrorbrane,” said Ond. “Glowing,
hovering, big, hard to see. We’ll haunt the locals, we’ll make some heavy appearances. First of all we
pay back that Mirrorbraner who was poking you, Chu. Teach her some religion! We’ll get concessions,
make some live-and-let-live deals. I figure to spend a few years here—till things back home calm down.
Will you keep me company, son?”
4: Who Made Who? “The angels made our world,” said Craigor, the words jumping unbidden into his
head. “Oh, that’s creepy. The big angel messaged that to me. Gladax. She says we shouldn’t try to go to
their land.”

“We made their world,” shot back Jil, quick as a knife. “I said that. We can do whatever we want to.