"Brin, David - Uplift 5 - Infinity's Shore" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brin David)

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And now, another clicking, groaning sound. The clipped poetry of duty.

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* Relent, Kaa, tell us,

* In exploratory prose,

* Is it safe to come? *

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The voice chased Kaa like a fluttering, sonic conscience. Reluctantly, he swerved around to face the submarine Hikahi, improvised from ancient parts found strewn across this planet's deep seafloor-a makeshift contraption that suited a crew of misfit fugitives. Clamshell doors closed ponderously, like the jaws of a huge carnivore, cycling to let others emerge in his wake ... if he gave the all clear.

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Kaa sent his Trinary reply, amplified by a saser unit plugged into his skull, behind his left eye.

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* If water were all

* We might be in heaven now.

* But wait! I'll check above! *

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His lungs were already making demands, so he obeyed instinct, flicking an upward spiral toward the glistening surface. Ready or not, Jijo, here I come!

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He loved piercing the tense boundary of sky and sea, flying weightless for an instant, then broaching with a splash and spume of exhalation. Still, he hesitated before inhaling. Instruments predicted an Earthlike atmosphere, yet he felt a nervous tremor drawing breath.

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If anything, the air tasted better than the water! Kaa whirled, thrashing his tail in exuberance, glad Lieutenant Tsh't had let him volunteer for this-to be the first dolphin, the first Earthling, ever to swim this sweet, foreign sea.

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Then his eye stroked a jagged, gray-brown line, spanning one horizon, very close.

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The shore.

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