"Brin, David - Uplift 04 - Brightness Reef v1.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brin David)

BRIGHTNESS REEF
Book One of a New Uplift Trilogy
David Brin
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BANTAM BOOKS
New York Toronto London
Sydney Auckland
to Herbert H. Brin
Poet/ journalist/ and
Melons champion of justice
BRIGHTNESS REEF
A Bantam Spectra Book
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Bantam hardcover edition / October 1995
Bantam mass market edition / November 1996
SPECTRA and the portrayal of a boxed "s" are trademarks of Bantam Books,
a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Copyright й 1995 by David Brin.
Cover illustration copyright й 1995 by Michael Whelan.
Cover design by Jamie S. Warren-Youll.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 95-17601.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information address: Bantam Books.
If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this "stripped book."
ISBN 0-553-57330-6 Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada
Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words "Bantam Books" and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
OPM 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
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Asx
i must ask your permission. You, my rings, my diverse selves.
Vote now! Shall i speak for all of us to the outer world? Shall we join, once more, to become Asx?
That is the name used by humans, qheuens, and other beings, when they address this stack of circles. By that name, this coalition of plump, traeki rings was elected a sage of the Commons, respected and revered, sitting in judgment on members of all six exile races.
By that name--Asx--we are called upon to tell tales. Is it agreed?
Then Asx now bears witness . . . to events we endured, and those relayed by others. "I" will tell it, as if this stack were mad enough to face the world with but a single mind.
Asx brews this tale. Stroke its waxy trails. Feel the story-scent swirl.
There is no better one i have to tell.
а
Prelude
PAIN IS THE STITCHING HOLDING HIM together ... or else, like a chewed-up doll or a broken toy, he would have unraveled by now, lain his splintered joins amid the mucky reeds, and vanished into time.
Mud covers him from head to toe, turning pale where sunlight dries a jigsaw of crumbly plates, lighter than his dusky skin. These dress his nakedness more loyally than the charred garments that fell away like soot after his panicky escape from fire. The coating slakes his scalding agony, so the muted torment grows almost companionable, like a garrulous rider that his body hauls through an endless, sucking marsh.
A kind of music seems to surround him, a troubling ballad of scrapes and burns. An opus of trauma and shock.
Striking a woeful cadenza is the hole in the side of his head.
Just once, he put a hand to the gaping wound. Fingertips, expecting, to be stopped by skin and bone, kept going horribly inward, until some faraway instinct made him shudder and withdraw. It was too much to fathom, a loss he could not comprehend.
Loss of ability to comprehend ...
The mud slurps greedily, dragging at every footstep. He has to bend and clamber to get through another blockade of crisscrossing branches, webbed with red or yellow throbbing veins. Caught amid them are bits of glassy brick or pitted metal, stained by age and acid juices. He avoids these spots, recalling dimly that once he had known good reasons to keep away.
Once, he had known lots of things.
Under the oily water, a hidden vine snags his foot, tripping him into the mire. Floundering, he barely manages to keep his head up, coughing and gagging. His body quivers as he struggles back to his feet, then starts slogging forward again, completely drained.
Another fall could mean the end.