"Jack McKinney - Kaduna Memories" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinney Jack)

It was of geometric design, with a spherical head and blunt rectangular tail section. Illumination globes
threw harsh white light into deep crevices that fractured the moonlet. The sphere was capped by a
saucer-shaped module, which was itself crowned by a wide-mouthed thruster sail; while below, affixed
to a thick stalk, it carried a power housing that resembled an inverted twin-thrustered skim-craft. Banded
midsection by black recognition symbols, the whole of the craft was surface-finished in white, save for
two crimson sensor ports that dimpled the face of the pod, lending it a look of vague intelligence.

"Scion of destruction," another of the monitors said in a voice that could have been Engineer Tcud's.

"A smart bomb. And we've summoned it into our midst." This one had hopped halfway down the hull,
small hands cupped to its mouth when Thaish turned to look. "The thing will catch us unawares," it
continued. "Deanimate, Station Six nodesтАФdeanimate and save yourselves before it's too late."

Thaish damped his ears but was ultimately unsuccessful in tuning the trio out. The warnings began to
work on him. A few of his peers were succumbing to the fear, two well on their way to substantive
cocoon already. The monitors' unsanctioned use of fright tactics constituted an abuse of game
parametersтАФmore so, given the perilous nature of Ship Nasst's space-time situationтАФbut with Inheritor
Major Nasst on the lookout for any excuse to reglower, Station Six was in no position to stage a
comeback rally.

If the monitors were succeeding as well in other stations, Thaish speculated, it could mean the end of the
game.

Without warning Nasst's voice burst from every corner of the cabin: "What's going on in there!"

Those few nodes who were near cocooned were knocked off their feet, increasing the monitors' lead.
The three over-hanging Thaish chortled, wafting gaseous score symbols at everyone.

"Cease this nonsense at once," the Inheritor added, "or pass this jaunt deanimate!"

Thaish realized at once that Nasst had erred. To be ordered into life suspension now was to be
rewarded.

"Ship Nasst will ingest the scion craft to ascertain its viability as an energy adjunct," Nasst was busy
telling anyone who was still listening. Thaish spotted three nodes with their feet in their mouths. "The craft
is devoid of organic forms. There is no reason to assume that it is an armed device."

Thaish's ears twitched. On the contrary, he thought: That there was no life aboard made the assumption
all the more reasonable!.

An impulse to deanimate ran through the station. The game now was to see just how long any of them
could hold out once the craft was taken aboard.

Chapter Two
Prev | Contents | Next
Larissa Nugget, dark-haired and moon-faced, heard her husband make a weary sound as he entered the
laboratory. Clay preferred his cramped null-gee nest in Excalibur's segmented tail, tucked among the
ductwork and transfer tubes where he could spend his time alone with MOLLY. He had always been
fascinated by neural nets and had monitored the research closely, though he hadn't made artificial
intelligence his life's work. That, he and Larissa both kept reserved for support-systems megaengineering;