"Kathleen Ann Goonan - Nanotech 04 - Light Music" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goose Mother)

тАФ homegrown and bequeathed by immigrants, melding into a
doorway of light the like of which he could not bear, lodging in the
biological niches of bones and flesh and blood, impregnating and
crazing him with all the lost emotions and all the dreams and all
the potential and тАж
And the futureтАж
But wait тАФthe light тАФhis quest! He could not remain like this !
He was thrown from the frantic Consilience as it was damaged
by another explosion.


Scientific Delirium Madness

Dania Cooper ran along the western boardwalk as explosions lit the
night and shook the ground, using her arm to shield herself from
falling, burning fragments. A dark shape loomed off to the west.
Light flared around it, revealing a long, low ship.
As the fireworks continued, she saw several more.
Her main impulse was to try and protect the supercollider. It had
been so long in the making that she felt physical pain, thinking that
it might once more be destroyed. Just a few hours ago, it had
responded to some powerful event.
People were running in every direction in the first pavilion she
came to. She ignored them and grabbed a cart. As she careened
through the panicking crowds, she felt cool and remarkably
removed from the melee.
She had no idea who was behind this attack, and it really didnтАЩt
matter. Crescent City was a legend to most of the world, and there
had been more than one attempt to gain control of it.
Only here, apparently, was there complete free will. Only here
had nanotechnologyтАЩs promise been manifested in a life of ease and
joy for its citizens, if one was to believe the information coming
from the rest of the world. Human life on the continents was
apparently divided into those who lived in cities which had mutated
into a spectrum of strange places and those who lived plain rural
lives of agriculture, shunning and fearing nanotechnology.
What did these attackers want? Probably they knew of the
richness of life in Crescent City and wanted to live here. That was
one great flaw of the city: limited space. A certain number of
refugees were taken in every year. The number was carefully
calculated by an algorithm that predicted how many could be safely
absorbed without upsetting all the balances which had evolved.
Refugees petitioning for admittance were given a date when they
could return. There was an island of them somewhere close.
Perhaps they had simply banded together, tired of awaiting
permission to live here.
Crescent City had no army; no navy, though there were various
defenses. Judging from the strength of this attack, though, they
may well be breached. Dania, like everyone else, could only try to
reach a relatively safe area and do her best to help contain this