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

instructions from anyone but myself, delivered in person in this room, until the current
downloads are reborn. Then prepare a download schedule for all uploads nominated by
Mikhail, to follow at the optimum interval relative to one another. Distribution between
gatecoder modules according to optimum load balance and tactical bias. Send it to me via
wisdom when it's ready. Further directives will follow." She finished at a gabble, sweat
standing out on her brow. We're committed now. Five hundred soldiers coming down the
chute, and nowhere to go but out.

She straightened up, and left the room as fast as possible. Which was why she wasn't there
when the control system spoke quietly to the empty air: "Alert. There is an error condition
associated with subject Raisa Marikova. Codon error: illegal nanostructure is associated
with subject's homoeobox structure. Phenotype error: subject homoeobox specification
contains abnormal neurological structure. Do you want me to proceed ..?"

There was no reply.

The Gatecoder waited for a long time, repeating the message occasionally. Finally, when
it received no further instructions and could wait no longer, it resolved the problem by
checking its default decision set. Then it began to put together the first body.

The chosen vehicle was an in-system shuttle. It was a stubby cylinder, propelled by a
pulsed fusion reaction; fast, simple, brutally non-virtual. Oshi suited up to inspect it from
outside, floating in the vacuum of the main docking area. She hung before it, suspended
on monofilament cables from the docking hub and the side wall like a spider webbing the
bell of an enormous flower.

The Bronstein was a true space ship; not some hyped-up atmospheric shockwave rider,


file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Stross,%20Charles%20-%20loveme%20(ss).html (23 of 41)4-7-2007 2:25:53
4: Will you still love me ...

but a freighter capable of going anywhere in the system. It could operate with or without a
human crew, having been designed for maintaining the cloud of drone platforms dispersed
throughout the Ridgegap system. Decades ago, those platforms had pumped a steady
stream of raw materials down into the gravity well of Turing. Some had been assembled
into this colony. Others had been diverted in-system to the venusiform world Wirth, their
impact showering the clouds of that planet with tailored algae. Days ago Oshi had given
the order to have the Bronstein and its sister ships powered up and readied for flight.
Where to go was an interesting question; the Ultrabright attack craft was driftings towards
a parking orbit around Turing, its monster engine powered down. But if it changed its
mind and began to move once they'd launched on a rendezvous course, things could get
very unpleasant indeed.

Sensors on the inside of her helmet visor monitored her breathing mix: a concealed fan
churned quietly, forcing dry air past her sweating face. Too many things could go wrong
in deep space. Planetary life was inherently fail-safe: big, comforting biospheres could
recover from those little course-corrections that triggered mass extinctions. But this fleet
of attacking minnows was inherently vulnerable. All the target had to do was move out of
their reach and ...