"Gentry Lee - 02 - Double Full Moonlight" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lee Gentry)

parents and an ugly resurgence of racist nationalism in Germany, Johann was
nevertheless fascinated by the apparition and expended considerable effort to understand
it. He was certain that there was an explanation for the phenomenon he had witnessed
that was consistent with the laws of science.
When Johann moved to Mars, he became the director of the Valhalla Outpost, a
facility located near the northern Martian polar caps whose function was to provide water
to the other human habitations on the planet. On Mars Johann and Sister Beatrice both
had additional encounters with the clouds of enigmatic, sparkling, dancing particles. For
each of them, the new apparitions only reinforced their earlier conclusions about the true
nature of these experiences.
The Great Chaos resulted in substantial reductions in funding for the Martian
colonies. Although the lack of money undermined the essential infrastructure on the
planet and triggered a mass emigration back to Earth, Johann and Sisters Beatrice and
Vivien steadfastly remained in their jobs on Mars, eventually becoming acquainted with
one another and sharing stories of their unusual apparitions. When a giant global dust
storm swept across Mars, threatening to deliver a deathblow to all human habitation,
Beatrice and Vivien were at Valhalla with Johann. The three of them, along with eight
other human beings, had the courage and faith to enter a strange, hatbox-shaped structure
that had been built by bizarre alien robots just before the dust storm reached the outpost.
To their astonishment, the structure turned out to be a vehicle. This vehicle blasted off
and orbited Mars for several hours before being swallowed by a gigantic spherical white
spacecraft with a red polar hood and red linear markings around its equator.
Once inside this amazing extraterrestrial spaceship, Johann and Sister Beatrice
were separated from the other nine humans. They were guided toward a small boat,
which took them on an incredible voyage, a magical mystery tour that suggested whoever
or whatever had created the giant sphere not only had thorough knowledge of recent
human history, but also had somehow accumulated intimate personal information about
Johann and Beatrice.
At the end of the voyage Johann and Sister Beatrice were deposited near an
uninhabited island paradise somewhere inside the sphere. They lived together on the
island in harmony, arguing only about whether their hosts were GodтАЩs angels or an
extraterrestrial species with unbelievable technological capability. During this period they
also fell in love. However, the strength of BeatriceтАЩs vow of chastity, taken when she was
ordained as a Michaelite priestess, prevented the physical consummation of their affair.
Johann and Beatrice were visited by a glowing ribbon of the sparkling, dancing
particles, which performed a complex display that each of them interpreted differently
Immediately thereafter, their almost perfect island existence was irrevocably altered by
the arrival of a third person who had left Mars with them, Yasin al Kharif Johann and
Beatrice found Yasin unconscious and near death, clinging to a floating piece of debris in
the lake that surrounded their island. The good and gentle Beatrice exerted her con-
siderable energies to nurse Yasin back to health.
Yasin had worked for Johann at Valhalla. Johann knew that his former employee,
although extraordinarily intelligent, had a history of sexual assault and other sociopathic
behavior. Johann brooded about what life would be like when Yasin was again healthy.
He also shared his knowledge of YasinтАЩs past with Sister Beatrice, but she essentially
ignored his warnings.
In the days that followed, JohannтАЩs worst fears were realized. Yasin, after first
being rebuked by the outraged Johann for suggesting that the two of them should subdue
Beatrice and together enjoy her sexually, seized the first available opportunityto attack
Sister Beatrice. Johann stopped the rape before it was successflul, and was going to kill