"Zach Hughes - Tiger in the Stars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hughes Zach)

He continued his study of himself. He was small and compact and his
brain was expanded, linked into the finest set of computers and
instruments he'd ever seen. Someone had advanced science to the
ultimate. The life support system was a dream, operating with 100
percent efficiency. And then there was the power.

The power was a mass of overlapping fields without heavy shielding.
Inside the fields was the heat of a sun. The fields shimmered and writhed
even in rest. They spoke of power, which once again sent him into a daze.

One thing for sure, he was not on the old Pride. This ship, of which he
was a part, was bigger. Not as big as one of the colonizer starships, but
bigger than Pride. And because her power was so compact, there was
room for a large cargo hold, extravagantly aired, rich in oxygen. He would
need no suit to work that hold.

It was time to look outside again. He scanned the area. He found the
Crab, but it was not in its proper position. He searched for other
landmarks. Everything indicated that he was a great distance from the
last point he remembered. But the familiar guide stars were there,
identified by their spectrum. All the points of reference told him that he
was in the home arm, the Orion Arm, but exactly where was the question.
All the power of his eyes did not find any of the home neighborhood stars.
An hour of scanning gave him no clue as to the whereabouts of his own
star, old Sol. It was puzzling. He could remember all of it. But he couldn't
remember important details of direction and reference. He could not place
Sol in relationship with any of the known points. His memory held all the
data needed to seek and find Cassiopeia and to identify her, but when he
tried to place Sol in relation to Cassiopeia, or any of the other known
points, his mind went blank.

He explored the extensions of his mind represented by the complicated
mechanics of his ship and found extraordinary charts that were more
complete and more detailed than any he'd ever seen. He discovered more
familiar stars, Sirius, Vulpecula. But Sol, as far as the charts were
concerned, did not exist.

He began to take stock of himself. His brain was of soft living flesh and
connected with materials other than flesh; but it lived. He could trace his
own synapses, feel the power of his thought waves. In his mind he was a
complete man, an expanded man, but in body he was nothing more than a
small mass of cells encased in a container.

There had to be an explanation. He must find it. He would go home and
there he'd learn the answer. He had fantastic ability. He could measure
the distance to the nearest and the most remote stars. He could shoot a
bearing on a distant body and know its mass. He had known points.
Triangulate and there was Sol and home.

The point ended in open space, in the area among the vast emptiness