"Paul Mcauley - Red Dust" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mcauley Paul J)

Field Dome Number Eight grew rice. The canal which
carried away the overflow from its flooded fields had been
choked by winter dust storms, forming a slough of deep mud
covered by a thin dry crust on to which Citizen Lin Yi had
ventured and broken through. Now he floundered up to his
chest in algae-tinted gloop while the others laughed and
shouted advice.

"Do you think you're a fish, Lin Yi?"
 RED DUST
3

"Fish swim in water, not mud. Maybe he's a hog!"
"You're taking conchie recapitulation too far!"
"Recapitulation? If he's a hog, then he's evolved!"

They were waiting for Lin Yi to call for help, none of them
willing to break ranks and lose face; and Lin Yi wouldn't ask
for help because he would lose face too. He made a kind of
sobbing grunt and tried to lunge forward, but succeeded
only in sinking deeper. His hands plashed uselessly in dark
green slime; his head was tipped back, his mouth wide open.

Lee tossed an end of his safety line to Lin Yi, missed and
dragged it back, threw it again. "You might be enjoying your
swim," he shouted, "but we'll need your help to clear up
this mess, Lin Yi!"

Lin Yi threw himself at the line, his head going under the
slop even as he grabbed hold with both hands. The line
snapped taut and Lee fell flat on his ass. Some of the watchers
laughed. Lin Yi came back up, eyes rolling white in his
mud-caked face, and started to claw along the line in panic.
For every meter he gained, Wei Lee was pulled a meter
closer to the mud. The watchers hooted and stamped their
feet as Lee was dragged feet first towards the canal while at
the other end of the line Lin Yi pulled himself out hand over
hand, as neat a demonstration of Newton's third law of motion
as anyone could wish. By the time Lin Yi made dry land,
gasping like a future-shocked amphibian and streaked from
head to foot with slimy clods and viridescent strands of algae,
Lee was lying waist deep in mud beside him.

Lin Yi held out a hand. "Help me up, Technician," he
said. After all, he was a shareholding citizen, and Lee was
just an itinerant worker. He had rights; Lee had a contract.
The fact that Lee had just saved his life meant that Lin Yi
had to regain face by asserting his position.

Knowing that didn't cool Lee's temper. He clambered to