"03 - Time Streams" - читать интересную книгу автора (McGough Scott)

Master Malzra's laboratory had been daunting enough for

the silver man and his new intellectual cortex. The

corridors and spaces beyond the lab-tutorial rooms, lecture

halls, surgical theaters, wind tunnels, test chambers, and

countless more laboratories-were overwhelming. In gazing at

these elaborate structures, the probe understood at last

what a school was: a building designed to aid in gaining new

knowledge, communicating it to others, and applying it in

invention. This was a revelation. His creators needed to

learn. They were not all-knowing angels, driven by logical

necessity and an apprehension of the ascendant good. They

were ignorant animals, ennobled only by their insatiable

curiosity, and some were less ennobled than others.

"I'm Teferi," offered a boy who capered into the silver

man's path and stopped stock still, as if daring the half-

ton creature to walk over him. "I'm the magical prodigy." He

followed the introduction with a snap of his fingers,

sending blue sparks bursting through the air.

The probe stopped in his tracks and crouched slightly to

get a better look at the young scholar. Teferi's face was

small, dark, and impish. Tousled black hair jutted wildly

about his gleaming eyes. He wore the manifold white robes of

a Tolarian student. At his waist, a leather sash held his

personal array of crystals, wands, and fetishes. His feet