"Jay Lake - The Dead Man's Child" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lake Jay)

The Dead Man's Child
Original fiction exlusive to Cosmos Online
by Jay Lake

NASA
As her father's star-polished bones rattle in their grave-drawer, Marguerite resolves to track him down.
I am the dead man's child. Daddy rode the high lines - that I know, because I have his badge with the
glinting circuits and the bloodstains that tell so much if only I knew how to read them. His bones are
polished with starlight. They rattle when he sighs in his grave-drawer.

But these are things I am not supposed to tell. Mother forbids. I am supposed to wear my proud face
and pretend to be like every other child with a parent lost to accident or environmental malfunction or
unhappy chance.

I know better. When Daddy whispers to me through his shattered teeth, he tells me better.

Someday I will ride the high lines.
###
"Today we will be having a pop quiz on the five quarters of the world," says Mr Grieve. He has been
teaching children so long some grandpas sat in his circle. I sometimes imagine Mr Grieve looks like
Daddy might have if my father had lived on forever.

We grumble, because that's what kids do, and get out our tablets and swipe them with antistatic cloth in
case of cheating or poor hygiene. Both are wrong, of course, but cheating doesn't kill.

Here is the test:
1) Why does the world have five quarters?
2) What is the colour of each quarter of the world?
3) How do we honour those colours?
4) If you were Crew, how would you arrange the quarters?
5) Bonus question: where does air come from originally? Answers concerning recycling and
environmental engineering will not receive credit.
###
Starlight poisons the human mind. It is known to introduce phantoms, spectral illusions outside the normal
realm of the visual cortex's baseline processing capabilities. Once those phantoms take up residence
within the ego and the associated memory wells, they can be impossible to banish, even with surgical
intervention. A logarithmically increasing degradation of mental function and emotional integrity results. It
is therefore an obvious imperative of all responsible citizens to avoid any exposure whatsoever to
starlight. All viewing ports are to be avoided. Unauthorised use of viewing ports should be reported
immediately, as should any other accidental or deliberate exposure to starlight. - Dr. Speedkill's Certified
Manual of Good Citizenry and Optimal Child Rearing.
###
"Yes, Marguerite?" Mr Grieve points to me.

I have fire in me today. Mother calls me star-touched, and worries, but she sends me to school anyway. I
am almost done here, Mr Grieve will not hurt me too much.

Eyes closed against stinging tears, stomach clenched, I ask the question which has been on my mind for
years. "Can you please tell me about the high lines, sir? What they really are?"