"Charles Stross - Duat" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stross Charles)

"I think so." Oshi sat up under her own muscle power, stretched disturbingly dislocated-
feeling arms above her. She glanced at the medic, blinking back impressions of dèja vu.
The woman had a fine-boned face, skin like parchment but flawless; her body language
radiated the raw intensity of the very old or the very naïve. "This is the Ridgegap-47
system?"

"You could call it that." There was something odd about Raisa Marikova's stare -- Oshi
strained for recognition, but it eluded her. Bright, dry wit. Oshi blinked, willing her eyes
to switch mode, and felt something give; the room flickered into the curious false-green
colours that her retinal implants converted ambient EM radiation into. "That's not what we
call it, though." Sharp as a knife. "It's called the Duat. Or so we were told when we arrived
here."

Oshi came to her feet suddenly, felt her blood pressure drop and blipped her adrenal
glands into play -- aren't military bionics wonderful -- and looked round. Green contours
of light tracked through every surface, revealing and concealing the secret life that
surrounded them. She pursed her lips and whistled, experimentally; in one corner a
cobweb flickered lucent blue. Listeners. She blinked her eyes back to optical mode,
forcing herself to ignore a wave of nausea: "did my download record say anything about
who I am or why I'm here?"

Raisa stepped back hard, up against the grey-finished wall, raised her hands. "What do
you think I am, one of the Gods? They don't tell me any of that kind of shit." She stared at
Oshi, poking the tip of her tongue out in an exaggerated parody of concentration --
"Ignorance is wisdom. Where did you come from, anyway?"

"I could ask the same of you." Oshi stared at the other woman. Something about her
face ... that's it. Raisa was slightly cross-eyed, hence the stare.

"Why is that?"

Oshi cleared her throat. "I was told there wasn't anyone here. As of twenty years ago."

"Twenty years --" Raisa froze. "You came that far," she said quietly. "Why?"


file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Stross,%20Charles%20-%20Duat%20(ss).html (18 of 103)4-7-2007 2:25:58
2: In the Duat


"This system is meant to be awaiting colonization." Oshi coughed again, almost choking
on slime. "Squatters --" Another wave of queasiness swept through her. "Shit." She tried
to take a step forward, nearly stumbled.

"Hey, calm down! Check yourself in the mirror." Raisa had an arm around her waist
before she could double over, her stomach trying to twist like a snake inside her -- "relax
-- " one wall was fading to the tunnel-grey of liquid crystals, an active mirror -- "are you
feeling sick?"