"Jody Lynn Nye - Muchness" - читать интересную книгу автора (Nye Jody Lynn)

examination on you and complete a debriefing, which may take several hours. Should all go as planned,
they'll send you back here at once. Any questions?"
She glanced at Douglas Viernes, her coworker at the power console. He nodded as if to say that he
would take care of their department. Valerie shook her head.
Suddenly, instruments appeared, and the scientists poked, prodded, measured, weighed, estimated, and
noted. "Aren't you going to get out calipers and measure my fingernails?" Val asked.
Startled, Fitzhugh turned, about to issue an order, then aimed his fishy gaze at her. "Young lady, that's
not funny."
Valerie shrugged.
"It may be the last joke I tell."
"No graveyard humor here, please." Clyde bustled his narrow form through the crowd of technicians
around her, and threw a heavy white cloth over her head.
"Wear this, and keep it cinched. The panels are made of Kevlar and treated with a coating of high-grade
reflector, in case you run into anything. At the speeds you'll be traveling, all purely theoretical of course,
contact with even a minute piece of matter could result in, er, damage. This should protect you; if it
doesn't, nothing can."
"It's a pinafore," Valerie said, spreading her hands downward over the long, white skirts. No wonder the
men were so eager to have her go instead of one of them. They'd look complete fools in what to her was
a mere encumbrance. The straps settled heavily on her shoulders, and she felt the weight of armor for a
short time until the garment was adjusted to spread the mass evenly over her torso. She yanked on the
sleeves of her lab tunic to keep them from bunching up underneath. "A combat pinny. My gran would
approve. She was a fierce old one."
Fitzhugh straightened the straps and patted her on the shoulder. "In the absence of normal sensation,
you'll be subject to random neural firings during the transition. One of the reasons we have chosen you is
that your psychological profile suggests you can handle sensory deprivation. You have a strong grasp of
identity."
Valerie gulped, nodded, and waited. Connor smiled. "Just remember all you can, even if it doesn't make
sense. Our counterparts in Chicago will debrief you, and then send you straight back to us."
"With luck," Clyde said. "Thank you, lass. Good luck."

The heavy hum felt hypnotic, drawing Valerie in as she moved closer to the shining field. She could see
herself reflected perfectly in its silver surface, as in a looking glass. Compared with the others' images
behind her, she was tiny, almost childlike. The heavy white skirts that hung below her knees made her
seem smaller still. For a moment, she felt vulnerable. Then the sense of helplessness made her so angry
with herself it propelled her forward. As the sweep second hand on the lab clock passed six P.M.

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 Muchness by Jody Lynn Nye


precisely, Clyde nodded to her. She stepped through the looking glass.
The static electricity that enfolded her body as she passed through the barrier crushed down tight,
constricting her breathing. She knew she was getting smaller and smaller and smallerтАж
Consciousness returned with the same drowsy feeling she had when waking up from a vivid dream. Her
eyelids weighed heavy when she blinked them. She focused her eyes to make sense out of the grayness
that surrounded her. It didn't coalesce into anything, but remained a deceiving, free-form mass. She
covered one eye. No, altering her depth perception didn't help.
"Well, I'm sitting on something," Valerie said out loud.
If this was an elaborate joke played by the fellows in the lab, using ether and a sensory deprivation tank,
she was determined not to let them get a laugh on her. She disentangled her hands from the folds of her