"Geoffrey A. Landis - Elemental (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Landis Geoffrey A)

"My only real worry is that I might accidentally forget the rules against
incidental magic and get myself booted out. "
"Rules?"
"Venus base has very strict laws forbidding any use of 'incidental' magic.
Lighting cigarettes; untying knots, that sort of thing. It's a sensible enough
rule. It's the ward spells that keep the whole place from being uninhabitable,
so it's understandable that they'd be a bit picky about anything that could
conceivably result in an accidental cancellation of a key spell. But I'll miss
being able to play."
She snapped her fingers. A tiny ball of pink fire popped out of the air and
settled in her palm. "All us thaumaturges like to play with spells."
She tossed the ball of fire to her other hand and grinned wickedly. "But
wanton magicing is a bad habit to get into. After all, if too many people
start playing with magic without the strict safeguards built into commercial
spells, the
side effects could add up, and who knows what could happen'?" She snapped her
fingers once again. The tiny fireball flashed blue, then vanished with a pop.
"You mean, like, if I made my snow spell wrong it could cause an earthquake in
Katmandu?" asked Ramsey.
"A snowstorm more likely, unless you've got a pretty unusual snow ward. For an
earthquake you'd need to awaken the earth elemental. That's my job."
Walking to the lab after lunch, Ramsey heard a low roar. As he approached, it
got louder.
Now he could heat a voice, barely audible above the roar. Susan? It sounded
like she was in trouble.
He ran to her lab. Unlocked. He shoved the door open, and a spray of water
rushed out at him.
Inside was-chaos. He looked down into the lab. Susan stood in front of a
computer terminal, waist deep in swirling brown water. Her hands flew about
frantically as she intoned a rapid series of spells. In front of her, a
fountain of water gushed out of midair two meters off the floor. Arranged in a
circle around this strange waterfall burned six candles in arcanely carved
copper stands.
Ramsey ran down the steps and waded into the room.
"Susan! What's going on?"
She looked up. "Ramsey! Thank God! I've got a runaway! If the water rises up
and puts out the candles, we're in big trouble!"
The candleholders were already submerged. The water level was about ten
centimeters below the flames, rising slowly.
"What can I do?"
"I don't dare move. Find some way to stop the flow! But for God's sake, don't
put out any of the candles!"
"How do I stop it"
"I don't know! Figure something out!" She went back to chanting.
Ramsey grabbed a book, waded over to the fountain, and pressed it against the
stream of water. Water spurted around the edges unimpeded. He pressed harder.
The book passed right through the source of the waterfall. Ramsey, unprepared
for the sudden loss of resistance, nearly fell on his face.
This wouldn't work. He needed another approach.
A fire extinguisher caught his eye. Good against fire, not water. Or was it?