"George Mann - The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mann George)

bullet fired through page after page in the closed book of realities, taking a
shortcut through infinity. The transdimensional pod had hummed with an
almost subliminal vibration under their boots and asses. They had looked at
each otherтАЩs faces in nervousness. A few of these troop pods had gone
missing, taking a wrong turn somehow, perhaps ending up in some
alternate plane from which there was no return, or maybe just ceasing to be.

Sometimes Stake wondered if he truly had returned to his own plane.
Might this be a subtle variation on the world he had left? If so, might some
subtly different Jeremy Stake have taken his place in his reality? And if so,
had he come back without the need for disguise?

Well, such alternate versions of oneself had not in fact been
discovered in any of the realms that Theta research/technology had given
the Earth Colonies access to. But extradimensional races had certainly
been encountered. There were the beetle-like Coleopteroids, derisively
called Bedbugs. The putty-like LтАЩlewed. The more humanoid Antse people,
who covered their bland gray bodies entirely in the gorgeous flayed skins of
great creatures called flukes. And then, there were the blue-skinned Ha Jiin.
One of the most human of races. One of the most beautiful. And deadly.

тАЬSeverance, Amy Jo,тАЭ called the speakerтАЩs voice. Stake watched a
young woman rise to attend her appointment. She was one of those who
had come today in uniform rather than street clothes. It was really a
personal decision. Maybe she was proud of it. Maybe she was simply still in
the military mind-set. Under her arm she carried a black beret, her uniform
itself patterned in shades of blue, from dark navy to bright azure to pastel.
Stake was in his street clothes, but he had an identical set of camouflaged
fatigues among his belongings.

The Blue War, they had called it.

It was over now. Everybody coming home. Everybody being sifted
back into a world that would be different for them, whether it was a secretly
distorted variation or not.

тАЬBuddy? Hey... brother?тАЭ

Stake turned his head, which glistened black like obsidian. He met the
eyes of a crew-cut Choom.

тАЬWhat happened to you?тАЭ

There. Someone had overtly invaded his privacy. Someone either too
unthinkingтАФor too compas-sionateтАФto just leave him be.

Stake had an answer prepared, though. тАЬI was in some caverns, and
there were major gas concen-trations. A plasma grenade caused it to
ignite.тАЭ That was what they had been doing there. Trav-eled so far for, bled
so long for. Officially, it was to lend support to the emerging Jin Haa nation.