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

it was what attracted them to Offworld to begin with and had kept them in space for more than ten years.

Twelve-year-old Jain, left behind this trip, had been conceived and born in orbit.

"It's not that I detest gravity, you understand," Nugget said, coming over to her station. "It's just this
constant back and forth."

It was Clay's standard follow-up to his grav-aggravated grunts. Larissa toed the release lever for the
adjacent seat and told him to sit down before he collapsed on the deck.

"Mika transmitted your burst. Figure forty-five minutes for a reply from Offworld station." Clay glanced
at his watch. "The RPV's been cruising over 'O8FC's bright side," Larissa continued. "You might as well
see what we've got while we're waiting." Her husband's pale eyes lit up, and she nodded, smiling. "We've
got a strong visual from the probe."

"Fantastic," he said, rubbing his hands together. "Who's working the camera?"

"The silly-looking one with all the arms."

"Shiva."

"If that's what you call it," Larissa said. "Take a look at this," she added, doing input at the console. "And
prepare yourself for a new worldview."

Nugget looked at her askance. "What're youтАФ"

"See for yourself."

Screens, Nugget thought idly, as a heads-up display flickered to life. Excalibur was in desperate need of
an upgrade overhaul. There was talk of major innovations in the works at OLD's orbital cyber
facilitiesтАФthe same labs that had birthed MOLLY and Emeric Bulkroad's AI wonder, REC 67. Rumors
about approaches that would do away with key boards and screen hardware altogether. Interface chairs,
neural couplers, gogglesтАж

Nugget supposed he would just have to wait and see what developed.

Larissa was busy fiddling with picture-adjustment controls, zapping through interior views of the probe.
When she was finally satisfied with the reception, the screen showed a noisy wide-angle shot of the
control module, robots at their stations, all but indistinguishable from the probe's in-place technology.

"Pan left to right," Larissa started to say.

"Here, let me," Nugget interrupted, leaning toward the visual pickup. "Shiva: tight close-up on stations
one and two." The mobile remote brought two more robots into the picture, one of whom waved at the
camera. "That's Chaplin," Nugget explained.

"The one who insists on wearing the Voyager medallion?"

"That's him."