"Lisanne Norman - Sholan 01 - Turning Point" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norman Lisanne)

She hesitated, every muscle still poised for flight, staring back to where her pursuers waited for her.

"Tell us where they are hiding," one demanded.

An invisible hand closed viciously on Carrie's wrist, non-retractable claws pressing into her flesh. She
jerked free, her other hand pressed to her mouth as the scene blurred.

"Valtegans," she moaned, drops of blood pearling on her wrist and dropping to the coverlet.

She dreamed again of standing shivering in her under-wear as she stowed her clothes in the small locker
beside the coffin-shaped sleep pod, the chill caused by more than the lack of heating in the cryo level.
Then lying down on the form-shaped interior, waiting for the medic to come and at-tach her to the
life-support and cryogenic systems.

Carrie glanced at her brother Richard before turning to grin nervously at Elise through the clear perspex
sides as sensor pads were attached. Their parents hovered at the ends of their pods, anxiously waiting"
until all three children were safely asleep.

She jumped as a hand touched her.

"Don't worry. It's only a sedative to help you relax," smiled the crew woman, fixing the small adhesive
patch to her arm. "Next thing you know, you'll be waking up in orbit around our new home.

"Just to remind you, the system is automatic so there is very little you have to do. If you turn your head to
the right, you'll see it's printed on the plaque there.

"The main thing to remember when you wake up is to press that red button to release the pod cover, then
take off the sen-sors. After that, you'll hear the instructions on the speakers."

Already she could barely make out the woman's voice.

"Sleep soundly, children. I love you," was the last thing she heard her mother say.

The cover slid into place over her and she began to drift gently, imagining herself surrounded by a soft,
warm, gray mist.

Suddenly she was jolted to awareness by the sting of the hypo on her sister's arm.

The drug swept through Carrie's system, burning its way along her nerves, setting them on fire until her
whole body was convulsed with spasms. She tried to fight it, to open her eyes, but all she could see were
colors swirling around her until her stomach was heaving with vertigo. She felt herself slippingтАж
slippingтАж

"Mother!" she had screamed, her mind and body trapped in the slow time cold hell of cryogenics, unable
to do any-thing as she felt at last her mother's blind terror at waking too soon.

She could sense her beating futilely at the walls of the cryo pod, trapped like a butterfly transfixed by a
pin as she tried desperately to activate the release mechanisms that were locked in stasis.