"Raymond F. Nelson - Then Beggar's Could Ride" - читать интересную книгу автора (Nelson Raymond F)

scientific knowledge beyond what we possess today? Could it be possible
with no fossil fuels? (The day when we will be without fossil fuels
approaches swiftly and relentlessly.) Could it be possible with no nuclear
energy? (The problem of radioactive wastes has yet to be solved, and
perhaps may be incapable of solution.) Could it be possible, not with
impossibly good people, but with ordinary, flawed people like you and me?

I say yes!

Uptime from here, on one of the branches of possible futures, there is a
world of make-believe made real. It's not far away. Come, let us join my
protagonist as he seeks a home there. Perhaps we'll find your true homes
there too.

I know mine is.
R. F. Nelson



PART ONE
 CHAPTER ONE
"Suicide, eh?"

"That's right."

The doctor, a short, thin, balding man in light blue business coveralls,
stood with his back to me as he spoke, leafing through my dossier with an
air of mild boredom. He raised his eyes to gaze out the circular window,
his unimpressive body silhouetted against a bright cloudless afternoon
sky, then turned to look at me for the first time.

"Light bothering you?" he asked.

"A little," I answered.

He grasped a handle at the window's rim and moved it, rotating the
inner of the two panes of polaroid glass. The window went opaque and the
illumination from the sun was replaced by a dim green shadowless glow
from phosphorescent walls and ceiling.

"Better?" he asked.

"I guess so." I didn't really care, and my voice showed it.

"Won't you have a chair?" He gestured toward a simple but elegant
piece of lightly stained flexible-wood furniture.

I sat down, remarking listlessly, "I was expecting you to ask me to lie
down on a couch."