"Charles Stross - Love me" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stross Charles)

"I asked Mik about your plan," he said abruptly. "He says you're right, in principle. But
there are other issues. We may have enough ships here, enough drones to mount an attack
fleet. Lock onto the berserker and crack its control wetware. But how do we control it?
The thing's millions of kilometres away. Lightspeed lag alone would mean we'd need a
point of presence right close by it ..."

"That's a technical issue," she said, stupefaction and satisfaction vying for expression.
"Are you going to do it?"

"Yes," Boris admitted. He stared at Oshi for a moment that seemed to stretch. "I was

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4: Will you still love me ...

hoping you'd agree to show us how it's done. You're the nearest thing to a field officer
we've got here. Nobody else has your depth of experience ..."

"Don't overestimate me," Oshi said, biting back bitterness. Was that a subtle double-
meaning she caught in his voice, or her own guilty conscience? Belweathers -- or maybe
scratch monkeys. "I'm just another grunt who wants out of this mess." She shrugged.
"What do you think we can do if we succeed? Where would you go?"

Boris ran one hand over his bare scalp, calculating. "There's a system about twenty light
years from here. Rich -- no Superbrights, this isn't a Dirtburner farm world -- if we can
fuel up the Ultrabright ship it should be able to make the crossing. Especially with a mass
conversion drive like it seems to have." He stopped and looked down, then met Oshi's
eyes. "It had better be big enough for an Ultrabright," he said slowly. "Do you know what
we found in the Dreamtime when we arrived?"

"What?"

"The entire second colony wave. The broadcast that followed us. All eighty million of
them, neatly archived in frozen storage ..."

"A very unwilling colony," Oshi said drily.

Boris's face crinkled in disapproval. "We've got to look after them. It's our responsibility."

"Yes, well." Oshi looked away, suddenly embarrassed. And that's a better mission than I
ever had, she thought. All this time, nothing but killing. "Isn't that what you always
wanted?"

"No," Boris said softly. "That kind of responsibility's not something I'd wish on anyone.
See you tomorrow ..."

Suddenly Oshi was floating in the bath, breathing through a hollow tube, warmth on every
side. She shook her head, felt the slow tug of turbulence through her hair. Damn it!
Disbelief and a sense of nervous anticipation crowded together in her mind. They're all
alive! And we're going to try to do it?