"S. M. Stirling - Draka 04 - Drakon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stirling S. M)

Seems steady enough, the physicist thought. one more level and then stabilize and monitor.

A technicians thought. power overage.

Odd. Tolya hesitated, cut energy input, 10%. To Gwen: overlord, it ought to collapse in a
gravity field if we take it down, pity to lose the molehole, but—

Power overage. It's not contracting. A pause. Loss of symmetry, the metric is varying.

Gwen cut in. put it on auto and evacuate. She looked up. Tolya was staring at the console,
wide-eyed.

overlord, we'll lose the facility!

Gwen spoke aloud. "Uplink the data, realtime." Crucial to get something of value out of this.
"Evacuate the settlement. And get out!"

Her voice took on the whipcrack of command. The others obeyed instantly, all but Tolya. The chief
physicist halted for an instant in the shaft door.

"Overlord—"

"Go."
 Her mind grappled with the machines. Get the data out. The control systems were trying to shove
the molehole back down into the quantum foam where it belonged, and failing. The danger was sudden,
shocking, as unexpected as a grizzly heaving itself out of hibernation beneath her feet. It focused her, as
nothing else had in generations. Get the scientists out; right now, they were more valuable to the Race than
she was. Save the facility if she could. That's not working. The machines were trying to starve the
molehole, but obviously the power input was coming from somewhere else. Once it rose over a tripping
threshold it started expanding on its own, exponentially. Vacuum energy, perhaps.

All right, we'll try the other way. She rapped out through her transducer: maximize containment
fields. If she couldn't starve it, see if it choked.

There was an almost-audible hum from beneath her feet. Several alarm systems began to indicate
physical breaches in components; all this was taking place in a space smaller than her fist, ten meters or so
below.

Well, that didn't work either. Fear now, harsh and unaccustomed. The facility was lost, and her
with it if she didn't get out in time.

"Out!" she rasped, and began the leap backward that would take her into the elevator shaft.

The ghouloon reacted with an equal, animal swiftness, reaching out to grab her and add the
momentum of its arm to her bound.

Blackness.

***