"Frankowski, Leo - Stargard 2 - The High Tech Knight" - читать интересную книгу автора (Frankowski Leo)

УNo! I mean, yes I didnТt volunteer. I was in twentieth-century Poland. I spent one day on my new assignment and the monitors came and I woke up here! I'm in the Historical Corps. I don't know anything about anthropology!Ф

У Why, those filthy bastardsЕФ

УYeah,Ф she said, grateful for any sympathy.

УЕsending me a totally untrained recruit! My God! That meansЕФ He stooped down and found a sliver of bone on the cave floor. He grabbed her right hand.

УThis doesnТt hurt. You won't feel it at all.Ф He slipped the bone under her index fingernail and moved it sideways. She stared openmouthed as he repeated the operation on her left hand.

УWhatЕФ

УThey were both turned off, thank God. Look. You have some fairly powerful equipment built into that little body. Your right index finger contains a temporal sword. With it, you can cut a tree in half at six paces. Your left contains a fire-starter. They can save your life, but if you donТt know how to use them, they can kill you. Or me!Ф

УThereТs more?Ф

УSome recorders, communicators, beacons, and so on. But that can wait. I want to find out what youТre doing here.Ф He squatted in front of a large flat rock by the cave wall. He pressed four nondescript spots on the rock. Glowing white letters appeared in the air before him.

READY

He started tapping the blank rock as though it was a typewriter keyboard.

INFO REQUEST PERSONNEL RECORD. HISTORICAL CORPS WORKER NOЕ

УHey. WhatТs your number?Ф She told him, he loaded it and started reading. УHmmmЕ born in North America, 62,218 B.CЕ approved for child rearing; eleven childrenЕ at forty-five, attended Museum University 62,219 B.C. to 62,192 B.CЕ doctorates in medicine, Slavic languages, psychology, and Greek literatureЕ accepted into the Historical CorpsЕ assigned to Periclean Athens, forty-one-year tour of duty. Performance unsatisfactoryЕФ

УThat wasnТt fair!Ф she said.

УFair? WhatТs fair? If you want to talk about 'fair,' go talk to one of our protos after her kid's been eaten by a leopard!Ф he snapped. УЕ Returned to university and obtained a doctorate in ancient Egyptian languagesЕ turned down on four assignment requests, ninth through thirteenth dynastiesЕ assigned twentieth-century PolandЕ caused a situation which resulted in unauthorized transport of local citizen to the thirteenth century. Involuntarily assigned to anthropological section as disciplinary actionЕФ

УThe bastards! Turning my station into a penal colony!Ф

УBut all I did was leave a door open!Ф

УWeТll see what you did.Ф He backspaced a few lines and requested an information expansion. УGood Lord! You're her! They used to tell stories about you in school. You're the worst screw-up in our history! You're the one who sent the owner's own cousin back to the Polish Middle Ages, ten years before the Mongol invasions, when the guy didn't even know that time travel existed. They couldn't bring him back because he wasn't discovered there until the invasion was actually on. The owner himself found his own cousin on the battle lines, so they had to leave the guy there for the ten years or violate causality. When you make a mess, lady, you don't kid around!Ф

УBut all I did was to forget to close a door!Ф

УYou screw up here and IТll feed you to the leopards.Ф He pulled up four more files and scanned them. УWell, if it's any consolation, your last boss was punished for failing to brief you properly. He'll be here in fifty years as my replacement and you get to break him in.Ф

УI think IТll just quit and go back to North America.Ф

УFine. YouТll get your chance to do that in a hundred years, subjective.Ф

УBut-Ф

УLady, this far back we get one canister every fifty years. The last one just left and the next one is taking me out of this flea-bitten pest hole.Ф

УSo cheer up, kid, and make the best of it. Hungry? Come on, IТll show you where there's a good rotten log. Lots of grubs.Ф