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

line. Voice mail is available. Your medic and orientation
tutor is Raisa Marikova. Comrade Marikova is --"

"Hey, what is this shit?" Oshi shook her head, trying to clear it. The dumb computer hook-
up droned on, a simple-minded parody of the instant understanding on tap that could be
conveyed by a working wisdom network. "Where's Raisa? Where am I?"

"Raisa Marikova has been called to the Temple of the
Mysteries of Nephthys. You have been moved from gatecoder
medicentre to habitation block D, Memphis, main lifesystem
level, Cylinder One."

"Fuck that." Every answer she got raised a hydra's neckful of new questions, but if she
stopped to try and get answers now she knew she'd never get moving again. Gingerly
feeling her way, Oshi swung her feet out from under the sheet and lowered them to the
floor. Dead grass stems crackled underfoot as she stood up; goose-flesh rose on her naked
skin. "I'm hungry. What's to eat?" The room pancaked around her for a moment, then
settled down.

" There is food in the nearest refectory area. You may
proceed. Follow the blue signs." A winking arrow appeared on the door.

"Some clothing -- oh." A loose robe lay folded on one stool. It was a minor struggle to
dress herself, but at least the mirror showed that she looked vaguely human. The
discoloured patches on her scalp were already hidden beneath a peach-fuzz of hair, and
although she was hollow-eyed and hollow-cheeked she didn't quite look like a skeleton.

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2: In the Duat

Just very, very hungry. "Show me to the refectory."

The door opened onto a twilit perspective; an alleyway paved in dust ran between
anonymous blocks of mud-coloured brick. The light had a curious quality to it, like dusk
beneath a cloudless sky. Oshi shuffled at first, until she felt that her sense of balance was
up to the job of walking. A blue arrow in her lower-left field of vision pointed the way; as
she followed it she tested her wisdom access. Nothing doing ... just a blank echo where
there should be a susurration of artificial life all around her, and the moron-level
mumbling of the on-line services. So the Duat doesn't have a psychosphere? She tried not
to let it faze her, but it was disturbing all the same. That's wrong. Things must be sliding
badly ...

The refectory was in a high-walled compound off to one side of the alley. Oshi followed
the arrow through a dusty wooden gate, into a low-ceilinged room with a dumb waiter
built into one wall and some stools and tables scattered about. The shadows turned
everything a murky tint of grey. Oshi sat down. "So what's to eat?" she asked.

"Rice. Eggs. Quorm. Potatoes. Please specify preparation
required."