"LeGuin, Ursula K. - The DispossessedUC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Le Guin Ursula K)

wretched void without past or future. The walls stood tight
about him. Outside them was the silence. His arms and
buttocks ached from injections; he ran a fever that never
quite heightened to delirium but left him in a limbo be-
tween reason and unreason, no man's land. Time did not
pass. There was no time. He was time: he only. He was
the river, the arrow, the stone. But he did not move. The
thrown rock kung still at midpoint. There was no day or
night Sometimes the doctor switched the light off, or on.
There was a dock set in the wall by the bed; its pointer
moved from one to another of the twenty figures of the
dial, meaningless.

He woke after long, deep sleep, and since he was facing
the dock, studied it sleepily. Its pointer stood at a little
after 15, which, if the dial was read from midnight like
the 24-hour Anarresti clock, should mean that it was mid-
aftemoon. But how could it he midaftemoon in space be-
tween two worlds? Well, the ship would keep its own time,
after alL Figuring all this out heartened him immensely.
He sat up and did not feel giddy. He got out of bed and
tested his balance: satisfactory, though he felt that the
soles of his feet were not quite firmly in contact with the
floor. The ship's gravity field must be rather weak. He did
not much like the feeling; what he needed was steadiness,
solidity, firm fact. In search of these he began methodi-
cally to investigate the little room.

The blank walls were full of surprises, all ready to re-
veal themselves at a touch on the panel: washstand, shit-
stool, mirror, desk, chair, closet, shelves. There were sev-
eral completely mysterious electrical devices connected
with the washstand, and the water valve did not cut off
when you released the faucet but kept pouring out until
shut offЧa sign, Shevek thought, either of great faith ia
human nature, or of great quantities of hot water. Assum-
ing the latter, he washed all over, and finding no towel,
dried himself with one of the mysterious devices, which
emitted a pleasant tickling blast of warm air. Not finding
his own clothes, be put back on those he had found him-
self wearing when he woke up: loose tied trousers and a
shapeless tunic, both bright yellow with small blue spots.
He looked at himself in the mirror. He thought the effect
unfortunate. Was this how they dressed on Urras? He
8

searched in vain for a comb, made do by braiding back
his hair, and so groomed made to leave the roam,.