"James Patrick Kelly - Undone" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kelly James Patrick)

James Patrick Kelly
UNDONE


panic attack
The ship screamed. Its screens showedMada that she was surrounded in threespace.Aswarm of Utopian asteroids was closing on her, brain clans and mining DIs
living in hollowed-out chunks of carbonaceous chondrite, any one of which could have mustered enough votes to abolish Mada in all ten dimensions.
"IтАЩm going to die," the ship cried, "IтАЩm going to die, IтАЩm going to..."
"IтАЩm not." Madawaved the speaker off impatiently and scanned downwhen. She saw that the Utopians had planted an identity mine five minutes into the past
that would boil her memory to vapor if she tried to go back in time to undo this trap. Upwhen, then. The future was clear, at least as far as she could see, which
wasnтАЩt much beyond next week. Of course, that was the direction they wanted her to skip. TheyтАЩd be happiest making her into their
great-great-great-grandchildrenтАЩs problem.
The Utopians fired another spread of panic bolts. The ship tried to absorb them, but its buffers were already overflowing. Mada felt her throat tighten.
Suddenly she couldnтАЩt rememberhow to spell luck, and she believed that she could feel her sanity oozing out of her ears.
"So letтАЩs skip upwhen," she said.
"You s-sure?" said the ship. "I donтАЩt know if... how far?
"Far enough so that all of these drones will be fossils."
"I canтАЩt justтАжI needa number, Mada."
Aneedle of fear pricked Madahard enough to make her reflexes kick. "Skip!" Her panic did not allow for the luxury of numbers. "Skip now!" Her voice was
tight asa fist. "Do it!"
Time shivered as the ship surged into the empty dimensions. In threespace Madawent all wavy. Eons passed in a nanosecond, then she washed back into the
strong dimensions and solidified.
She merged briefly with the ship to assess damage. "What have you done?" The gain in entropy wasan ache in her bones.
"I-IтАЩm sorry, you said to skip so..." The ship was still jittery.
Even though she wanted to kick its sensorium in, she bit down hard on her anger. They had both made enough mistakes that day. "ThatтАЩs all right," she said,
"wecan always go back.Wejust have to figure out whenweare. Run the star charts."


two-tenths of a spin
The ship took almost three minutes to get its charts to agree with its navigation screens тАУ a bad sign. Reconciling the data showed that it had skipped forward in
time about two-tenths ofa galactic spin. Almost twenty million years had passed on MadaтАЩs home world of Trueborn, time enough for its crust to fold and buckle
into new mountain ranges, for the Green Sea to bloom, for the glaciers to march and melt. More than enough time for everything and everyoneMadahad ever loved
тАФor hatedтАФto die, turn to dust and blow away.
Whiskers trembling, she checked downwhen.What she sawmade her lose her perch and float aimlessly awayfrom the command modтАЩs screens. There had to
be something wrong with the shipтАЩs air. It settled like dead, wet leaves in her lungs. She ordered the ship to check the mix.
The shipтАЩs deck flowed into an enormous plastic hand, warmas blood. It cupped Mada gently in its palm and raised her up so that she could see its screens
straight on.
"Nominal, Mada. Everything is as it should be."
That couldnтАЩt be right. She could breathe ship-nominal atmosphere. "Check it again," she said
"Mada, IтАЩm sorry," said the ship.
The identity mine had skipped with them and was still dogging her, five infuriating minutes into the past. There was no getting around it, no way to undo
their leap into the future. She was trapped two-tenths of a spin upwhen. The knowledge was like a sucking hole in her chest, much worse than any wound the
Utopian psychological war machine could have inflicted on her.
"Whatdowedo now?" asked the ship.
Mada wondered what she should say to it. Scan for hostiles? Open a pleasure sim? Cook a nice, hot stew? Orders twisted in her mind, bit their tails and
swallowed themselves. She considered тАУ briefly тАУ telling it to open all the air locks to the vacuum. Would it obey this order? She thought it probably would,
although she would as soon chew her own tongue off as utter such cowardly words. Had not she and her sibling batch voted to carry the revolution into all ten
dimensions? Pledged themselves to fight for the Three Universal Rights, no matter what the cost the Utopian brain clans extracted from them in blood and
anguish?
But that had been two-tenths ofa spin ago.