"George R. R. Martin -- Second Helpings" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin George R R)

тАЬWhat is the most recent projection?тАЭ said Haviland Tuf, his voice even and expressionless.
Dax stood up, hissing in alarm, and sudden fear.
Tolly Mune sipped on her beer, and slumped back deep into her chair. She closed her eyes. тАЬEighteen
years,тАЭ she said. She looked like the hundred-year-old woman she was, instead of a youngster of sixty,
and her voice was infinitely weary. тАЬEighteen years,тАЭ she repeated, тАЬand counting.тАЭ


Tolly Mune was far from unsophisticated. Having spent her life on SтАЩuthlam, with its vast continent-wide
cities, its teeming billions, its towers rising ten kays into the sky, its deep underways far below the
surface, and its great orbital elevator, she was not a woman easily impressed by mere size. But there was
something about the Ark, she thought.
She felt it from the moment of their arrival, as the great dome of the landing deck cracked open beneath
them and Tuf took the Ferocious Veldt Roarer down into darkness and settled it among his shuttles and
junked starships, upon a circular landing pad that glowed a dim blue in welcome. The dome closed over
them and atmosphere was pumped back in; to fill so large a space so quickly it came with gale force,
howling and sighing all around them. Finally Tuf opened their locks and preceded her down an ornate
stair that slid from the lionboatтАЩs mouth like a gilded tongue. Below, a small three-wheeled cart was
waiting. Tuf drove past the clutter of dead and abandoned ships, some more alien than any Tolly Mune
had ever seen. He drove in silence, looking neither right nor left, Dax a limp, boneless, purring ball of fur
stretched across his knees.
Tuf gave her an entire deck to herself. Hundreds of sleeping berths, computer stations, labs, accessways,
sanitary stations, recreation halls, kitchens, and no tenants but her. On SтАЩuthlam, a cityspace this large
would have housed a thousand people, in apartments smaller than the ArkтАЩs storage closets. Tuf turned
off the gravity grid on that level, since he knew she preferred zero-gee.
тАЬIf you have need of me, you will find my own quarters on the top deck, under full gravity,тАЭ he told her.
тАЬI intend to address all my energies to the problems of SтАЩuthlam. I will not require your counsel or
assistance. No offense is intended, Portmaster, but it has been my bitter experience that such liaisons are
more trouble than they are worth and serve only to distract me. If there is an answer to your most vexing
quandary, I shall arrive at it soonest by my own efforts, left undisturbed. I shall program a leisurely
voyage toward SтАЩuthlam and its web; it is my hope that when we arrive I will be able to solve your
difficulty.тАЭ
тАЬIf you canтАЩt,тАЭ she reminded him sharply, тАЬwe get the ship. Those were the terms.тАЭ
тАЬI am fully aware of this,тАЭ said Haviland Tuf. тАЬIn the event you grow restive, the Ark offers a full
spectrum of diversions, entertainments, and occupations. Feel free to avail yourself to the automated food
facilities as well. The fare so provided is not equal to the meals I prepare personally, though it will acquit
itself admirably when compared to typical SтАЩuthlamese provender, I have no doubt. Partake of as many
meals as you require during the day; I will be pleased to have you join me each evening for dinner at
eighteen-hundred shipтАЩs time. Kindly be punctual.тАЭ And so saying, he took his leave.
The computer system that ran the great ship observed cycles of light and darkness, to simulate the
passage of day and night. Tolly Mune spent her nights before a holo monitor, viewing dramas several
millennia old recorded upon worlds half-legendary. Her days she spent exploringтАФfirst the deck that Tuf
had ceded her, and then the rest of the ship. The more she saw and learned, the more awed and uneasy
Tolly Mune became.
She sat for days in the old captainтАЩs chair on the tower ridge that Tuf had bypassed as inconvenient,
watching random selections from the ancient log roll down the great vidscreen.
She walked a labyrinth of decks and corridors, found three skeletons in scattered parts of the Ark (only
two of them human), wondered at one corridor intersection where the thick duralloy bulkheads were
blistered and cracked, as if by great heat.
She spent hours in a library she discovered, touching and handling old books, some printed on thin leaves
of metal or plastic, others on real paper.