"Rudy Rucker - The Man Who Ate Himself" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rucker Rudy)

the size of Marston's coffin.

"We found those ... windows in the garden", Evangeline said. "And there were some metal scraps we
melted and cast into hinges. Van had the whole idea after he found the windows." The shock of her
husband's death seemed to have worn off a little. Her halo of sexuality was building back up.

"They could just be silica that was fused when the meteor hit," Harry mused. "But those markings...."
I looked closely at one of the shell-halves. It was darkly transparent and was covered with scratches.
The scratches were arranged in bands, and certain of them appeared over and over. It was easy to see
how Marston might have convinced himself they meant something. I shuddered a little, remembering his
thick, bloody coughing. I busied myself with the jets.
A few hours later we had the guidance system hooked up. It was basically just glued onto the capsule ...
any touch of an atmosphere would have pulled it loose ... but we weren't planning for the capsule to ever
go near an atmosphere once the rocket was launched.
Although there was no way to honestly predict what the capsule might encounter once it was a few dozen
light-years from Earth, we had programmed in an overall course plan. The rocket Marston had hidden in
the underground silo was to take the capsule out of the Solar System. Once in interstellar space, the
rocket would eject the capsule. At that point our guidance system would kick on. Our basic principle
would just be to avoid massive objects as they came up. According to our calculations, this would
eventually get the capsule out into in-tergalactic space. So as not to have to deal with any more galaxies
crowded with stars, we planned for the capsule to go into orbit around our galaxy once it got out there.
Sooner or later it would have to fall back in ... but this wasn't exactly a short-term problem.

"The most important thing is that he doesn't come back to Earth," Evan-geline reminded us. "Can you
promise me that?"

I had known Harry long enough to read his expressions. Right now he was wiggly with surpressed
laughter. I wondered how badly he'd sabatoged the guidance system.

"I promise you," I told Evangeline, giving her arm a kindly pat. Her flesh felt like warm marble. "I think
we're ready to go."

Evangeline and the android went down to the freezer to get Marston. While they were gone I tried to
pump Harry for some information, but he just grinned and took a few pictures of the scratches in that
black glass. When Evangeline came back, the android's face-screen was back on. It was singing
"Massa's in de Cold Cold Ground."

I helped them heave Marston's coffin into the capsule. I'd had those two bourbons. So of course I had to
gash my finger on the rough edge. Some of my blood went with Marston.

The capsule was resting on a little dolly on tracks. While I nursed my cut, Evangeline pushed a button on
the wall, and the capsule began rolling smoothly forward. Outside, a five-meter disk of sod lifted up to
reveal Marston's personal hearse. A hydraulic lift eased the rocket up so that its hatch was level with the
ground. Mechanical arms reached out and gently drew the capsule in. The hatch thudded shut, and we
were ready for launch. The sky was clear. It was almost midnight. The locusts had finally knocked off. In
the distance I heard a lion's coughing roar.

"When should it go off?" Evangel-ine asked me in a silky whisper. She looked a little chilled in just that
T-shirt.