"Moorcock, Michael - The Blood Red Game" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moorcock Michael)

'How do we know that our drive - or any of our other instruments - will work in the Shifter, Renark?' He paused, looking around him at the tall, heaped banks of instruments. 'If, as you think might be possible, different laws of space and time apply, then we may find ourselves completely stranded in the Shifter's area of space - cut adrift without control over the ship.'

'I admit we don't know whether our instruments will work out there,' Renark agreed, 'but I'm prepared to risk the fact that we may share certain laws with the Shifter. Maybe I'll be able to tell when it's closer, but my judgment won't be infallible.'

As a space senser, Renark needed no equipment to heighten his powers, but he did need to concentrate, and he therefore used an energy-charger, a machine which replaced natural, nervous and mental energy as it was expended and could, if used wisely, give a man an extra boost if he needed it especially. It was equipment normally only issued to hospitals.

Now, as Talfryn studied the recordings which had been made of the Shifter and became increasingly puzzled, Renark got into a comfortably padded chair and attached electrodes to his forehead, his chest and other parts of his body. He held a stylus and a plastic writing block on the small ledge in front of him.

Calmly, he switched on the machine.

TWO

Renark concentrated.

He could feel the presence of the galaxy, spreading Inwards from his own point in space; layer upon layer of it, time upon time.

He was aware of the galaxy as a whole and at the same time felt the presence of each individual atom in its structure - each atom, each planet, each star, nova and nebula. Thorough space, where matter was of minimum density, little cores of denser matter moved. Spaceships.

Faintly, beyond the limits of his own galaxy, he sensed the lesser density of intergalactic space, and beyond that he picked up faraway impressions of other galaxies.

There was nothing unpleasant happening out there - something he already knew about. Something he was pledged to alter.

Then he adjusted his mind so that, instead of sensing the components of the galaxy, he sensed it as a whole. He widened his reception to take in a small area beyond the galaxy and immediately the entire structure of time and space, as he knew it, was flawed.

There was something there that was alien - something that did not fit. It was as if a body had moved through that small area and had torn a hole in the very fabric of the universe. His mind and body trembled as he sought to adjust, as previously, to his new, unnatural factor. It was a binary star with eleven planets equidistantly encircling it.

It did not exist. Not in relation to the universe Renark knew. He could make no close assessment of its components - as yet. It was wrong! Renark controlled his mind against the thought and concentrated on judging the system's progress. It was, in relation to itself, travelling through space in the same manner as ordinary stars and planets travelled. But it also travelled through a series of dimensions of which Renark had no experience whatsoever. And its course, its orbits through the dimensions was bringing it closer to Renark's own continuum.

He opened his eyes, gasping.

Quickly, he jotted down an equation; closed his eyes and re-adjusted his mind.

It continued towards them. It shifted through myriad alien dimensions, moving through a whole series of continua, progressing imperturbably onwards in an orbit as constant as the orbits of its planets about its stars. Soon now it would be passing through Renark's continua.

But how long would it stay there? Renark could not tell without knowing a little of the universes which lay beyond his own - and of these he had much to find out. His future plans depended on it.

In less than twenty minutes, Renark was finished. He looked over Talfryn's shoulder at the records.

'She's coming closer,' he said. 'Between twelve to fifteen hours and shell be here. That's if my calculations are right. I think they are. As far as I can tell, she's travelling at a regular rate. I can't explain why the periods spent in this continuum have varied so much, though, if her speed is as constant as it seems to be.'

'Well, you've narrowed it, anyway.' Talfryn's body seemed to tense.

'Yes.' Renark moved about the control room reading gauges.

'And you're certain it won't miss this space-time altogether?'

'That's possible - but unlikely.'

Renark stared at a bank of gauges for a moment and then he moved towards a chrome and velvet chair which had a whole bank of levers and switches in front of it, a laser-screen above it. This was the gunnery control panel.