"Barry Longyear - Adagio (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Longyear Barry)

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ADAGIO
By
Barry B. Longyear


Tobias sat on the red-stone grave marker on the side of Graveyard Hill and watched as Forrest
tortured the rocks with the portable generator he had taken from the cargo bay. Torture is what
Lady Name called Forrest's game. Lady Name was convinced that Forrest was insane.
Tobias raised a grimy hand and rubbed his eyes. Hell, Lady Name was wig-picker bait herself.
That's why she was called Lady Name. It was a temporary label for the woman until she could figure
out just who the hell she was. Or at least until she would say who she was. Cage and Forrest
thought she had amnesia. Tobias didn't buy that, but he didn't care.
He lowered his hand and let his gaze wander past the main shelter dome until it came to rest upon
the remains of the ship. Three kilometers behind the cargo vessel was the jagged ledge that had
ventilated
the command module as the ship ground to a stop. Through the rents in the command module, he could
see Lady Name. She was silently watching Forrest. Motionless.
It was entirely possible that Lady Name would kill Forrest. A matter of indifference to Tobias.
Somewhere below her in the twisted metal, Cage would be nervously working on the computer. Death
still seemed to matter to Cage. His nerves were the direct result of Lady Name frequently sitting
just out of his field of vision, staring at him, sharpening her knife upon one of the dead red
stones.
The dried and cracked crust that had formed over the surface of the red dust when it last rained
was almost all gone. The little bit of wind, the motion of the rocks, the feet of the humans had
eroded the crust. And it had been such a long time since it had rained. When they had constructed
the main shelter dome from the cargo-bay supplies, it had been gleaming white. Now it was covered
with dull-red dust.
It seemed like years had passed since they had put up the dome and installed the nutrition system.
Twenty meters in diameter, it was large enough to shelter all five of them. Lady Name was the
first one to move out and erect an individual shelter. There had been fifty of the plastic-plank
shelter kits in the cargo bay. Now they each had one, only meeting in the dome to eat. The fact
was that they could no longer stand each other.
The whisper of feet dragging in the dust interrupted Tobias's thoughts. Tillson. The footsteps
stopped. .
"Is it possible, Tobias, that God has done this to us
to provide us with a challenge against which to test our virtue?"
Tobias turned to his left and glared up at the chaplain. Tillson was naked again. "Stick it up
your ass, -Howard."
Chaplain Howard Tillson nodded gravely. "You are right, of course. You are very wise, Tobias. Very
wise."
The chaplain turned and stumbled his way down the back of Graveyard Hill, his droopy buns jiggling
with each step.
Tobias again pondered the fact that Tillson had a woman's ass. Another fact to ponder was that
rescue had best happen before Tillson's ass got to look much better. He hollered down the hill at
the jiggling ass, "Tillson, put some clothes on!"
The chaplain stopped, turned, looked up at Tobias, and nodded. "You are right, of course. You are
always right, Tobias."
Placing his hands upon his knees, Tobias pushed himself to his feet and dusted off the seat of his