"Brin, David - Uplift 06 - Heaven's Reach" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brin David)

before.

No such luck, he realized as the louvers slid into pil-
lars between the wide viewing panes. Outside, the gen-
eral scenery had not altered noticeably. The same
reddish blue, Swiss cheese sky rolled over a mauve
pampas, with black mountains bobbing biliously in the
distance. And a slick mesa still had his scoutship mired,
hemmed on all sides by yellow, multiarmed shapes.

"Banana peels," he muttered. "Goddamn banana
peels."

One reason why these stations were manned by only
one observer . . . allaphors tended to get even weirder
with more than one mind perceiving them at the same
time. The "objects" he saw were images his own mind




10 David Brio

pasted over a reality that no living brain could readily
fathom. A reality that mutated and transformed under
influence by his thoughts and perceptions.

All that was fine, in theory. He ought to be used to it
by now. But what bothered Harry in particular about the
banana allaphor was that it seemed gratuitously per-
sonal. Like others of his kind, Harry hated being trapped
by stereotypes.

He sighed, scratching his side. "Are all systems sta-
ble?"

"Everything is stable, Taskmaster-Commander Har-
old, " the pilot replied. "We are stuck for the moment,
but we appear to be safe."

He considered the vast open expanse beyond the pla-
teau. Actually, visibility was excellent from here. The
holes in the sky, especially, were all clear and unob-
structed. A thought occurred to him.

"Say, do we really have to move on right away? We
can observe all the assigned transit routes from this very
spot, until our cruise clock runs out, no?"

"That appears to be correct. For the moment, no illicit