"John DeChancie - Skyway 2 - Red Limit Freeway" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dechancie John)

"But it is rare that one has the profound honor, the exhilarating pleasure, of meeting a protagonist of one
of these sagas in the flesh. However, that is our honor and our pleasure this day. Brothers and Sisters,
may I present to you-and would you join me in drinking a toast in honor of-"
"You closed the punking bar, you dolt!"
Fitzgore refilled his mug from a nearby pitcher. "Then I open it again!"
Everyone raised his mug.
"Join me in a toast to that giant of legend, that king of the Skyway, the man who drove into the raging
fires of the birthing universe and lived to tell the tale-"
He turned to face me.
"Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you ... Jake McGraw!"

?4

I frankly can't remember all of what went on that night. I know a great deal of alcohol found its way into
my system. Events, as I perceived them, became rather ... diffuse. Fitzgore and his compatriots turned
out to be very good drinking companions. Excellent drinking companions. They bought all of us a round
of drinks. We bought all of them a round of drinks. Everybody bought everybody a round of drinks.
Serious drinking then commenced. At some point, I found in my field of vision the wavering image of a
stein of beer fully three hands high. They called it the Brobdingnagian Thunder Cup.
I drank it.
That was quite late in the evening-I think. Before that, we did a lot of talking. They wanted to know
everything about me, about the Roadmap, about everything. I introduced them to Winnie. She's the map,
I said. Fine, they said. Let's trot out pencil and paper and see what she knows. Pencil and paper were
trotted out. Winnie proceeded to show her stuff, looking like a kindergartner learning the rudiments of
writ, pink tongue protruding as she executed cramped figures with arduous dedication. She filled page
after page with spirals and other shapes connected by lines.
"By God," Fitzgore said, "that's the local group! It must be." He stroked his psychotic growth of red
beard. "Dammit all, if we had a library on this planet, we could get books to check this." He tossed off
half a stein of beer.. "If we had any books on this planet."
"I think I've got a few astronomy books in the rig. Matter of fact, there should be a whole crate of 'em.
That right, Sam?"
"Yeah, our manifest shows a shipment of book pipettes. But you don't really want go back there and-"
"Sure I do!"
"Oh, for pity's sake."
"Jake," Roland said, "maybe later, when we're all sober. This array has to be the Local Group. Look,
here're the Magellenic clouds, and ... let's see ... right here would have to be Andromeda and Messier
33-"
"Who's not sober?"
"And these two little puffy things are probably Leos I and II. Over here are the galaxies in Sculptor and
Fornax-"
"Who needs books," a toothless logger with a Strine accent said, "when you got this cobber?"
"Roland is a book."
"Thanks, Suzie. And all these lines," Roland went on, "are Skyway routes. But the interesting question is
this. What is this major route coming in from this direction and going off here? Seems to be a major
road."
"Very likely," Fitzgore said. "Look at these other things Winnie's done. Could these be galactic clusters
connected by a road?"
"I should think they were," Roland answered. "And these cloudlike figures . . ."
"Metaclusters," I said.
"What're those?" somebody asked.