"James P. Hogan - Hammer of Darkness" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hogan James P)

Part I
The Planet
of Eternal Light
In toward Galactic Center, the myth implies, there is a star so
hot it is a mere dot in the sky of that planet where the God
of Darkness and the Lady of Light live. Just as this sun has
only one planet, so is there only one God, the God of Dark-
ness.
In fact, stars that hot, FO or hotter, don't have planets. And
if they did, the star wouldn't last long enough to allow plan-
etary development of a terrestrial environment.
Even if such a god existed and if he could build a planet
from scratch, why would he be humanoid or interested in hu-
manity?
тАФLectures on Pan-Humanoid Myths
Prester Smythe Kinsel
University of New Augusta
1211 A.O.E.
The young woman sits on the edge of the ornate bed where
she is being watched.
"Everyone watches the Duke's daughter," she says in a low
voice. Even the Duke's security force. More since the acci-
dent, she suspects. She cannot remember much of what she
knows she should know.
The Duchess was solicitous, and her father the Duke
growled. Yet he cares.
She frowns and leans forward, letting her long black hair
flood over the shoulders of her pale blue travel suit.
Why should her memories be so cloudy? She can remem-
ber everything since she returned so clearly, but the people
around her, the rooms, they all have a clarity that the past
does not have.
Yet she belongs. The well-thumbed holobook in her fa-
ther's study shows images of her growing up, standing at her
father's knee, holding his hand.
Perhaps her studies at the Institute will help. Perhaps time
will remove the awkwardness of relearning her past.
Perhaps ...
"Back into the fishbulb," she says out loud, crossing the
room that would have held five of the single sleeping room
she had Occupied at Lady Persis'.
Somehow, the long row of garments hanging in the
wardrobing room does not surprise her, although she has not
remembered them. She walks through the wardrobe to the
tiles and direct light of the bath.
Neither does she remember its luxury.
Half shrugging, she catches sight of herself in one of the
full-length mirrors.
"Disheveled," she observes, looking at her hair. Something
is right about it, for the first time in a long while, and some-