"Continuing Time - 04 - The AI War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moran Daniel Keys)

Reverend Andy completed his revolution, came to a nearly perfect stop with
another blast of his wrist rockets. УToo true,Ф Reverend Andy agreed. УItТs the
problem of our times. What did you do with him?Ф
The gravity at the asteroidТs surface was effectively non-existent; moving
slowly, Trent came to his feet, ignoring the stab of pain in his ribs when he
straightened out. Silently, the bad-tempered Chihuahua continued to chew both of
them out.
УNothing. He used an impact weapon.Ф Trent pointed out toward the stars. УUnless
heТs a lot better with his wrist rockets than I think he is, heТs out there.
Heading for Mars at about ten meters per second.Ф
Reverend AndyТs head swiveled to look, as though he thought he could make out
the manТs pressure suit against the background of black space, stars, and the
occasional distant glint of burning rockets. УReally.Ф
Trent winced at the jabbing pain. УMan, I tried to tell him.Ф

The Temple of СToons Asteroid is large by Belt standards, a roughly oval rock
nearly a kilometer in length along its long axis. Back in 2053 braking rockets
had matched its orbit to that of the Belt CityState of Gandhi, at Ceres. It
trails Ceres in its dance around the sun, only five kilometers distant: in 2080,
twenty-seven years after opening for business, it is one of the oldest and
busiest tourist attractions in the Belt.
The Museum of Animated Art which is located there was not always a Belt
institution. It had been founded over eighty years previously, in Culver City,
California, by the great Swami Dave Leary, a Hare Krishna whose teachings had,
so legend said, helped inspire the Prophet Harry to give up waiting tables and
become a holy man. In his great old age Swami Dave had moved the Krishna temple
from Watseka Avenue in Culver City to the new settlement at Ceres asteroid. It
had been only natural for Swami Dave to take the museum with him.
By 2080 the museum has grown far beyond its original boundaries. Sections of the
asteroidТs surface have been turned over to holofields that recreate, life-size,
the greatest art of the twentieth century.
Complete with copyright notices.

Reverend Andy radioed in; a sled carrying a pair of Security Services
bodyguards, employed by the museum, came out to pick them up.
As the sled was lifting from the downlot where the museumТs curator kept her
office, a pair of sleds cycled through the SpaceFarersТ Collective craft
VatsayamaТs cargo lock. The Vatsayama was docked at an asteroid 180 klicks away
from Ceres, after delivering supplies to the small Buddhist retreat there; its
sleds tumbled once to get pointed in the correct direction and then blasted out
along the vector Trent had given them.
They found the assassin hopelessly lost, just a short few degrees off the vector
Trent had guessed, tumbling around his own axis so quickly heТd grown dizzy and
vomited in his helmet, so dispirited that he did not even try to shoot at the
SpaceFarers when they dropped a snakechain on him and towed him back to the
Vatsayama.

Trent couldnТt get out of his suit with his ribs cracked; they disassembled his
scalesuit in sections to get it off him.
УLetТs play Good Cop/Bad Cop,Ф said Reverend Andy.