"Kay Kenyon - Maximum Ice" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kenyon Kay)

"You look like your father," she said, flashing a brilliant smile. "But even more like Emil, your father's
father. A good man, your grandfather. Come to see me when we've got rid of these tubes, and I will tell
you a good story about him."

As Kristof removed the lines connecting Zoya to her physio unit, the doctor looked at her with that
expression Anatolly had seen before, the one tinged with hero worship. He sighed. It was the old Zoya.

Sitting up, she murmured to Anatolly, "Is it bad, then?"

"It'sтАж bad. Yes."
She nodded. "So then, Anatolly, the worst is over. You've managed to tell me we have a bad problem.
That was well done." Her eyes held him. "Now tell me the rest."

He knew, then, that talking was the wrong approach. She must see for herself. "Come, Zoya," he said,
"and tell me what you see."

Slowly they walked together toward the porthole, he sup-porting her on one side, Kristof on the other.

"EarthтАж" she said, as they walked. "It's still there?"

"Yes, Zoya."

Before she looked out the porthole she turned to Anatolly. "You're going to show me why we haven't
heard from them."

For most of their 250-year voyage, no radio messages from earth.

Anatolly nodded. He wanted to comfort her, to protect her.

Simultaneously, he wanted her to comfort and protect him, as she had always done, for all her ship
children. He watched her as she turned to look out. It pained him to see her look of vul-nerability, the
same look he'd seen in every crew members face as they'd gazed on ancestral earth.

Below, light glinted off a pearl white globe, a world so pale and barren it could not be earthтАФyet it was.
Gone were the fa-miliar continents and oceans. In their place, a new landform clutched the planet,
squeezing the oceans into an equatorial remnant. Thin clouds hovered in the equatorial region like a
ghostly ring, further confusing the observer as to which planet, exactly, this was. Jutting through the white
mantle, great mountain chains could be seen, now merely islands in a hard-ened sea.

It cooled the heart, to think that this was earth. Barren was the best word for it, barren like so many
worlds they'd seen. They'd thought earth would always abide. But it hadn't, not at allтАж

They stood thus for several minutes, gazing at the ruin of earth.

She struggled for control. Of all the inhabitants of Star Road, only Zoya was of earth. She could
remember how it had once been.

Trying to reassure her, Anatolly said, "We're picking up weak radio signals. There are peopleтАФwe don't
know their lan-guage. A breathable atmosphere, remarkably. It's not a dead worldтАж not entirely."