"Ian McDonald - Verthandi's Ring" - читать интересную книгу автора (McDonald Ian)

тАЬVerthandiтАЩs Ring,тАЭ Harvest Moon said suddenly. Scented Coolabar seated
herself squatly on the grass beneath the wise tree. Beastli things squirmed beneath
her ass.

тАЬWhat is this game?тАЭ With life spans measurable against the slow drift of
stars, millennia-long games were the weft of Clade society. тАЬWhat didnтАЩt you tell
them, couldnтАЩt you tell us?тАЭ

Rose of Jericho opened her eyes. The wood now joined across the bridge of
her nose, her lips struggled against the lignum.

тАЬThere was not one fleet. There are many fleets. Some set off thousands of
years ago.тАЭ

тАЬHow many fleets?тАЭ

Rose of Jericho struggled to speak. Scented Coolabar leaned close.

тАЬAll of them. The Enemy. All of them.тАЭ

Then Rose of JerichoтАЩs sparse leaves rustled and Scented Coolabar felt the
ground shake beneath her. Unbalanced, Harvest Moon seized one of Rose of
JerichoтАЩs branches to steady herself. Not in ten reconfigurings had either of them felt
such a thing, but the knowledge was deeply burned into every memory, every cell of
their incarnated flesh. The Clade Heart-world had engaged its Mach drive and was
slowly, slow as a kiss, as an Edda, manipulating the weave of space-time to
accelerate away from bloated, burning Seydatryah. Those unharvested must perish
with the planet as the SeydatryahтАЩs family of worlds passed beyond the age of
biology. Calls flick-ered at light-speed across the system. Strung like pearls around
the gas giant, the eight hundred half-gestated daughter-habitats left their birthing
orbits: half-shells, hollow environment spheres; minor Heart-worlds of a handful of
tiers. A quarter of the distance to the next star, the manufactories and system
defenses out in the deep blue cold of the Oort cloud warped orbits to fall into the
Heart-worldтАЩs train. The Chamber of Ever-Renewing Waters, the military council,
together with the Deep Blue Something, the gestalt ├╝bermind that was the
Heart-worldтАЩs participatory democracy, had acted the moment it became aware of
Rose of JerichoтАЩs small secret. The Seyda-tryah system glowed with message
masers as the call went out down the decades and centuries to neighboring
Heart-worlds and culture clouds and even meat planets: after one hundred thousand
years, we have an opportu-nity to finally defeat the Enemy. Assemble your antimatter
torpedoes, your planet killers, your sun-guns and quantum foam destabilizers, and
make all haste for VerthandiтАЩs Ring.

тАЬYes, but what is VerthandiтАЩs Ring?тАЭ Scented Coolabar asked tetchily. But all
that remained of Rose of Jericho was a lignified smile, cast forever in bark. From the
tiny vacuum in her heart, like a tongue passing over a lost, loved tooth, she knew that
Rose of Jericho had fled moments before the Chamber of Ever-Renewing WatersтАЩ
interrogation system slapped her with an unbreakable subpoena and sucked her
secret from her. Scented Coolabar sighed.