"Vonda N. McIntyre-Steelcollar Worker" - читать интересную книгу автора (McIntyre Vonda N)

Steelcollar Worker
by Vonda N. McIntyre
This story copyright 1997 by Vonda N. McIntyre. This copy was created for Jean Hardy's personal use.
All other rights are reserved. Thank you for honoring the copyright.

Published by Seattle Book Company, www.seattlebook.com.

* * *


The enormous fuzzy balloon bounced from Jannine's fingertips, rose in an eerie, slow curve, and
touched its destination. The viddydub forces took over, sucking the squashed ball into place with a loud,
satisfied slurp.
"Work always reminds me of that Charlie Chan movie," Jannine said.
Neko, farther along on the substrate, pitched an identical elemental balloon into the helical structure.
She had an elegant, overhand throw; she had played ball before she left school, but she was too small to
get a scholarship.
"What Charlie Chan movie?" she asked. "Not that I go out of my way to see Charlie Chan movies."
"The one where he's dancing with the globe?" Jannine checked the blueprint hovering nearby, freed an
element from the substrate, and moved it into place.
"Do you maybe mean Charlie Chaplin?" Neko said. "The Great Dictator?"
"Chaplin, right." Jannine picked up a third element, tossed it, caught it again, danced on one toe.
Neko tossed an element through the helix. A perfect curve ball, it arced, touched, settled, like a
basketball into quicksand. Its fuzzy outlines blurred as it melted into the main structure, still a discrete
entity, but pouring its outer layers into the common pool.
"I don't think you'd go too far as a dictator," Neko said.
"I don't want to be the dictator. I want to be the guy who pretends to be the dictator."
She leaped again, twisting as she left the ground. But the system wouldn't let her spin. It caught her and
stopped her with hard invisible fingers. She found herself on the ground, with no sensation of falling
between leap and sprawl.
"Are you all right? I wish you wouldn't do that. Jeez, it makes me nauseous just to watch you."
Jannine picked herself up. Smiling, she glanced toward Neko, but Neko's blurry face showed no
expression.
"I'm OK," Jannine said to reassure her coworker. Neko couldn't see her expression any more than
Jannine could see Neko's. "Someday the system will handle a spin. How'll I know if I don't try?"
Neko picked up one more of the furry elemental balls and dropped it into place. The elementals
scattered at her feet, bumping and quivering, sticking briefly to the substrate or bouncing off. Once in a
while, two melded into dumbbell shapes, then parted again.
"The system will handle a spin when you grow a ball-joint in your wrist," Neko said, exasperated.
"You could read the documentation when there's an upgrade."
"Oh, when all else fails, read the instructions." Jannine laughed. "I don't have time to read the
instructions." She wished the company would let her take the manual home, but that was against the rules.
You were only allowed to read the manual in the company library.
Jannine and Neko walked down the helix, positioning the elementals, now and again prying one out
and replacing it.
A herd of elementals quivered toward Jannine, like bowling balls under a gray blanket. Several
escaped and flew off into the sky.
"Warm fuzzies today," Neko said.
"Yeah." Jannine went to the system and asked for cooling. The elementals calmed, settled to the
ground, and reabsorbed their covering blanket. Once in a while, an elemental emitted a smear.