"Frank Herbert - Destination Void 2 The Jesus Incident" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

And the damned ship never once interfered.

This place was a symbol of power. It was an aphrodisiac which seldom failed.
It also exposed the lie of Ship.

Those of us who see the lie, control. Those who don't see it . . . don't.

He felt a little giddy. Effect of the Pandoran wine, he thought. It snaked
through his veins and wormed into his consciousness. But even the wine could
not make him sleep. At first, its peculiar sweetness and the thick warmth had
promised to dull the edge of doubts that kept him pacing the nightside passages.
He had lived on three or four hours' sleep each period for . . . how long now?
Annos . . . annos . . .

Oakes shook his head to clear it and felt the ripple of his jowls against his
neck. Fat. He had never been supple, never selected for breeding.

Emond Kingston chose me to succeed him, though. First Ceepee in history not
selected by the damned ship.
Was he going to be replaced by this new Ceepee the ship had chosen to send
groundside?

Oakes sighed.

Lately, he knew he had turned sallow and heavy.

Too much demand on my head and not enough on my body.

Never a lack of couch partners, though. He patted the cushions at his side,
remembering.

I'm fifty, fat and fermented, he thought. Where do I go from here?




The all-pervading, characterless background of the universe -- this is the void.
It is not object nor senses. It is the region of illusions.

-- Kerro Panille, Buddha and Avata


WILD VARIETY marked the naked band of people hobbling and trudging across the
open plain between bulwarks of black crags. The red-orange light of a single
sun beat down on them from the meridian, drawing purple shadows on the coarse
sand and pebbles of the plain. Vagrant winds whisked at random dust pockets,
and the band gave wary attention to these disturbances. Occasional stubby
plants with glistening silver leaves aligned themselves with the sun in the path
of the naked band. The band steered a course to avoid the plants.