"Michael McCollum - Maker 2 - Procyion Promise" - читать интересную книгу автора (McCollum Michael)

тАЬI do not advise it!тАЭ

тАЬObjection noted,тАЭ she said. тАЬIтАЩll be careful.тАЭ

She made her preparations. As a last step, she unhooked herself from the safety lines and chinned a
control in her helmet. Two joysticks extended from her backpack to where she could reach them with
gauntletted hands. She took hold of the controls and gave each a small twist. Chryse felt the slight
pressure of her backpack jets responding to the command. A faint hissing sound superimposed itself over
the hum of her environmental control system. She began to move across the face of the control sphere
toward a fissure in the framework that appeared to extend into the center of the structure.

It took ten minutes for her to work down into the inner framework of the probe. The cabling and twisted
metal were like the trees of a dense forest. As she progressed ever deeper, she passed through
alternating regions of bright sunlight and ever-darker gloom. As her surroundings grew dim, Chryse felt
the sudden twinge of unease that is the legacy of a thousand generations of ancestors who feared the
coming of darkness. She was considering turning back when a sparkle of light caught her eye.

Her fear vanished, to be quickly replaced by curiosity. She jetted forward to find herself in a stray beam
of sunlight that penetrated the interior of the hulk. As she did so, the firefly speck died away. She moved
closer, and was rewarded by a polychromatic flash directly into her helmet visor. She reached out, thrust
her armored glove into a recess surrounded by the frayed ends of reinforcing fibers, and pulled a
multifaceted crystal from its nest.

She held the crystal close to her eyes and laughed hollowly. The mystery was a mystery no longer. The
crystal was an ordinary memory module, the medium in which the vast library of Maker knowledge had
been stored. They were also the functional basis of nearly every electronic gadget invented in the last
three hundred years. Billions were manufactured yearly, each identical to the original designs carried
aboard the probe.

She carefully placed the crystal in her belt pouch and was in the process of resealing it when a mechanical
voice suddenly blared in her earphones.тАЭ


тАЬWARNING. WARNING. YOU ARE APPROACHING THE RESTRICTED ZONE OF
A PROTECTED HISTORIC MONUMENT. YOU ARE HEREBY ADVISED TO TURN
BACK IMMEDIATELY. FAILURE TO COMPLY MAY LEAD TO CIVIL OR CRIMINAL
PENALTIES BEING ASSESSED AGAINST YOU.тАЭ


тАЬWhat the hell?тАЭ she yelped, forgetting her souvenir. She got her emotions under control and cursed
herself for being so jumpy. She growled her next statement: тАЬThose idiots at The Roost must have sent
someone to keep an eye on me!тАЭ

She considered the possibility thatHenning тАЩs management was chaperoning her, and then frowned. The
thought did not feel right. Such a gesture was too extravagant, even for them. It could be another tourist,
of course, but the fact that she had heard the warning meant that it was being beamed in the wrong
direction for a ship from Earth.

She began the delicate job of turning around and working back the way she had come. Five minutes
later, she was once again at the outer framework of the probe. She shaded her eyes and craned her neck