"Anderson, Poul - For Love and Glory" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anderson Poul)

УNo, Karl!Ф she yelled. УYou canТt either! DonТt do it! Please!Ф
He didnТt heed. Nor could he have heard through the roar. She looked, helpless.
Hebo and Dzesi were in their boat. The flood engulfed it. Water swept onto the ground above. Lissa stood fast. It swirled about her feet and drained away. The surge sped on. Behind it, the river level fell, with a hollow sucking sound. She saw the wave damp down too, as it climbed to higher levels. But that mass must pour back here from a narrower channel upstream. The bottom of the canyon went aboil.
The boat bobbed into sight, down again, up again, tossed to and fro. It had capsized. Through the foam she glimpsed Dzesi. The Rikhan must have clung to a thwart, then gotten hold of the rudder. She clasped herself to it, catching breath at every moment her face was in the air.
Where was Torben?
[38] Karl hove into view. His legs kicked, his tail threshed. Crosscurrents raged around him. He battled through them. His head stayed well aloft. Thus he spied Hebo when Lissa did. Torn loose, the man was, somehow, desperately swimming. She could barely make out the distance-dwarfed form amidst the violence. He vanished, drawn down. He emerged, he went back under. No human, however strong, could live.
No human.
Karl reached him, caught him, started for shore. The man kept his wits, didnТt struggle, let his rescuer carry him along. Well, he was a natural survivor, Lissa thought crazily.
They vanished under the canyonside. Karl doubtless left him on the boulders, for in a minute or two the Gargantuan reappeared, bound for Dzesi.
The water and the turmoil were slowly, raggedly dropping. Lissa ran back to the tent and slipped on shoes. Otherwise still in pajamas, she returned and picked her way down the steepness.
She found that Hebo had begun to crawl up. УThanks,Ф he gasped when she came to help. By the time they reached the top, Karl was bringing Dzesi ashore.
Hebo collapsed. Lissa slumped beside him and panted. It had been a tough climb.
Hebo struggled to his knees. УHoly Mother of God,Ф he stammered, УI, I thank you for your mercy. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with youЧФ
Lissa watched, astonished. She dimly recalled the prayer from one or two historical documentaries. Who would have expected anything like this from anybody like him?
VII
RAIN drummed on the dome and made the outside view a shadowiness in sluicing silver.
Recovered from shock and, in part, exhaustion, the four sat trying to assess that which had come over them. УI should have guessed,Ф said Lissa contritely. УThe canyon, the scoured soil along it.Ф
Hebo shook his head. УNo,Ф he growled. УThe blameТs mine. You and Karl werenТt prepared, you were doing entirely different studies, you wouldnТt have come here if you hadnТt been diverted to us, and then we kept your minds too full of other things.Ф He grimaced. УIncluding my gross behavior. Can you believe I havenТt been in the habit of acting that way?Ф
УItТs all right, Torben,Ф she murmured.
УNor was Dzesi at fault,Ф he plodded on. УSheТs a drylander. Her people had no experience. But me, IТm from Earth. That was long ago, but still, IТve stood on Severn side, I knew about the Bay of FundyЧand I forgot.Ф
He sighed. УIt shouldТve been plain to see from space. An estuary opening on a channel that leads to the ocean. A funnel; the exact conditions for a tidal bore. And the tide on Jonna is huge. And now it also had a storm at sea to push it higher.
УI could at least have stayed longer in orbit, observing. But no, I was in too much of a hurry to get us down and started, before your outfit noticed us and our nice little monopoly on the information evaporated.
УI was stupid.Ф
She found she hated seeing such a big, adventurous man [40] humbled. Seemingly Dzesi did too, for the Rikhan said low, УI could have held us back. I have fared enough in space to realize that every new world is a snarefield of surprises. But I was likewise impatient.Ф
УEveryone makes mistakes,Ф Karl added. УYou would soon have perished if you were incompetent. Instead, you have coped for century after century.Ф
УI will see to it that you get proper payment for the work youТve done,Ф Lissa told the man and his partner. УWithout you, the artifact might never have been found.Ф
Hebo smiled lopsidedly. УThank you,Ф he said. УThank you both, for everything.
УBut this has driven the truth home to me. IТve grown too old.Ф
УNo!Ф Lissa exclaimed. УYou arenТt due for a rejuvenation. Are you?Ф
УIt isnТt that.Ф She saw and heard how determination gathered itself. УMaybe youТve never met a case before. You must have read or heard something about it, but itТs not the sort of thing anybody likes to dwell on. My foolishness was to keep shoving it aside. Later, I always told myself, later, someday, thereТs no need yet. As the condition crept up on me, ignoring it got easier and easier.
УThe problem is memories.Ф
УOh, yes.Ф A chill passed within her. УYes, I see.Ф
УI do not,Ф said Dzesi in quick irritation.
You probably wouldnТt know, thought Lissa. I daresay every member of your species expects to die a violent death. Or hopes to.
Hebo looked grim. To spare him, Lissa explained: УRejuvenation makes the brain youthful again, of course, like every other part of the body. But it doesnТt erase memories. It refreshes them. Well, the brainТs data-storage capacity is finite. Worse, the correlations increase geometrically. In the end, itТs overwhelmed.Ф
[41] УSurely, in humans, as in my kind, selective erasure is feasible,Ф Karl said, as if offering comfort.
УOh, yes.Ф Lissa turned back toward Hebo. УIТm not familiar with the details, Torben, but I do know we have excellent clinics of every sort on Asborg. At least one of them must be equipped for the service.Ф
He eased a bit, smiled wryly. УEditing. Thanks, but I think IТd rather get the job done on Earth, if I can.Ф
Surprise jarred her. УEarth?Ф
УIТll have to choose and decide, you understand. Earth is where my oldest memories come from. And some of my dearest.Ф
He looked away from her, outward into the rain and the distance.
VIII
HER team did not come to a real understanding of Jonna and the life thereon. That would be the work of centuries, if it could ever be completed. But they had learned about as much as anyone hoped forЧa scattering of facts, some fragments of patternsЧwhen shortly afterward they must leave.
First they returned their nonhuman members. As Dagmar ran from Gargantua toward a point high enough in the gravitational well to allow a hyperjump across light-years, Lissa stood in the saloon, watching the planet recede. She could have done so in her cabin, but it was cramped and the viewscreen here was bigger.
Never mind how familiar, she never wearied of such a sight. On its daylit half, the globe shone white, swirled with a hundred shades of blue, drowning out vision of the multitudinous stars. Nightside glimmered in the light of three moons, small golden crescents. More atmosphere than lay around Asborg or Earth, more clouds. But they opened enough for KarlТs people to have seen those stars and at last sought a way to them; and he himself was a mountaineer, used to her thin air.
She smiled as she remembered him. Might they meet again, often. Now the course was for Xanadu. The three little beings from there, with their extraordinary senses adapted to cold and darkness, had been as valuable in studying JonnaТs long night as his strength, woodcraft, and biological knowledge had been under its sun.
The leap after that would indeed be to home.
Dagmar murmured around her, like the great organism that in a sense the ship was. Air passed by in a cool breeze, currently [43] bearing a slight piney fragrance. One standard gravity of acceleration gave a lightness welcome after Jonna. No matter how far they fared, the children of Earth brought along their remembrances.
A step on the deck made her turn her head. Romon Kaspersson Seafell had. come in. She suppressed a grimace, suddenly realizing that she wanted to be alone.
Not that the man was horrible. Medium-tall, slender, with sharp features, sharp dark eyes, and curly black hair, he wore a plain coverall like hers; but his bore the badge of his House on the shoulder, as if defiantly. Well, he was the only Seafell aboard, and only here because the Seafells had, surprisingly, contributed to the cost of this expedition and, reasonably enough, wanted at least one of their own along. HeТd given no particular offense, and been a competent interpreter of geographical data.