"John Morressy - Rimrunners Home" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morressy John)

Even in the stasis tank, isolation was a palpable presence. Careful screening
training, and conditioning all helped make it more bearable, but it was always
there, enclosing a man like his own skin. It did things to people.

When he passed through the last door, Vanderhorst stopped and looked around in
mild surprise. Reacculturation had a different look. The impersonal office he
recalled from his last visit had been turned into a comfortable homelike setting
of the kind he had longed for in childhood. Windows admitting sunlight and fresh
air, curtains blowing in a gentle breeze, doors all standing ajar; nothing here
to confine him. A young couple, slim and clean-featured, both of them smiling in
welcome, rose from chairs to greet him.

"Welcome back, Captain Vanderhorst. It's an honor to have you here," the man
said, extending a hand. "I'm Korry Long."

"I'm Jemma Tulio," the woman said.

"Jemma and I are a registered couple. We're under a two-year option agreement,"
Korry said. "I daresay that doesn't mean much to you, Captain."

"Not a thing."

Jemma took Vanderhorst's hand and led him to a chair. "There's been considerable
change in the structuring of social relations. That's probably the most
significant alteration in the cultural pattern since your departure, so we
thought we'd begin your reacculturation with that aspect."

The chair was set out from a corner, with plenty of space before and on both
sides. Vanderhorst seated himself gingerly. "Is this reacculturation? No more
talkdowns? No cramming?"

"This is the talkdown. Sleep-cram will be administered only when you feel
ready," she said.

"So we just sit here and chat?"

"Exactly. We find that it facilitates reintegration."

"Choppy down with me, runklers," Vanderhorst said, folding his hands behind his
head. When they both turned vague, cautious smiles on him, he said, "Sorry.
That's from before your time. I thought you'd have the old expressions down
pat."

"We avoid conscious anachronisms now, Captain," Korry said.

"Call me Van. And tell me more about social relations."
"There's been a strong resurgence of traditional attitudes in the last fifteen
years. Apparently things were quite uninhibited when you were home last."