"Tom Maddox - Gravity's Angel" - читать интересную книгу автора (Maddox Tom)

said. Through the window I could see points of light strobing, red-and-blue shifting
through the spectrum. тАЬSomething is poking through behind them,тАЭ she said. тАЬIt
wants in.тАЭ A sheet of blue light poured through the window, burned through us,
X-raying flesh and bone. In it we were translucent, the intricate network of our
nerves burning in silver fire. We were fusing together, so close to an orgasm that
would annihilate us.

I woke, got up, and drank some water for my burning throat, fell back on the
bed. I hung suspended between waking and sleeping as a flood of images passed
across my eyes. Bright, blurred shapes vanished before I could see them clearly.

She was coming in the next day, the day before the first big runs.

****

She wore khaki shorts and a dark blue T-shirt. We were sitting in my back yard
again, under a moonless skyтАФa thousand stars above us and meteors cutting brief,
silent arcs at the horizon. She sniffed at the glass of cold Chardonnay she was
holding, drank, and leaned back in the reclining chair.

тАЬI owe you an apology,тАЭ she said.

тАЬWhat do you mean?тАЭ

тАЬYou did everything you could to help, and I walked out on you.тАЭ

тАЬYou were troubled.тАЭ

тАЬI was, but I shouldnтАЩt have treated you like one of them.тАЭ

тАЬThatтАЩs okay. Apology accepted.тАЭ

тАЬTomorrow morning, what do you think will happen?тАЭ

тАЬTruthfully, I donтАЩt know. If we get good beam, weтАЩll have the right
conditions for your simulation.тАЭ

тАЬThatтАЩs what I thought. IтАЩve gone over it and over it, worked it through time
and again, had a work group tear my analysis apart. It all adds up to the same thing:
my simulations are realistic, plausible . . . and unverifiable without experimental
evidence. All of thatтАЩs fine. What worries me is this: if IтАЩm right, your people are
going into what could be a dangerous situation, and no one has a clue about it; no
one wants to hear about it. At least not from me.тАЭ

тАЬYouтАЩve done everything you can.тАЭ

тАЬMaybe.тАЭ

тАЬNo, I mean it. Listen.тАЭ And I poured it all out to her, what IтАЩd seen in recent
weeks, how incredibly closed and self-confident our world was, unbelievably blind