"Robert Onopa - Area Seven" - читать интересную книгу автора (Onopa Robert)

I remembered a place on a holo. It tugged at the edge of my memory, but I couldnтАЩt quite pull it into
focus. тАЬWhat happens to the surface in the direction of the equator? WeтАЩve got the astronomy for that.тАЭ
She toggled video from the first flyover, and the screens displayed a plain of burning sand. тАЬMelt the
skids,тАЭ she said.

тАЬIn the other direction?тАЭ

The screens went dirty red. тАЬSome of the surface is moving up there-little surges, unstable. See that?
Dense liquid. And that color. Like unhealthy rust.тАЭ Tessa pursed her lips. тАЬCreepy.тАЭ

тАЬLetтАЩs hover, do the rest of the astronomy and get a decent fix. IтАЩll suit up and go down.тАЭ

I didnтАЩt like the drugged sleep IтАЩd been getting. The neurologicals gave me vivid dreams. That cycle the
dreams had been bleak memories from the home planet, the blasted landscape of a tropical volcano: a
high caldera streaked with recent lava flows, cinder cones, a fire pit. And I saw what I hadnтАЩt been able
to remember: a path among trees inundated by ash, snaking through gnarled forms. It had a name on a
weathered sign:Desolation Trail .
***


When my boots touched the surface, I picked up a sound-indistinct, distant, busy, like the noise on the
Daedalus bridge when C Survey shipped out. тАЬTessa. You hear that?тАЭ

тАЬAll I hear is your breathing. Would you believe me if I told you it makes me think about how we used to
keep each other warm at night?тАЭ

SheтАЩd kept both of us warm. For months, back when we were staging on Beta Proculis, for example,
sheтАЩd nursed me though one exotic virus after another, jury-rigging IV lines to keep my fluids up, cooling
my forehead, running samples into the upload trays. When I finally got back on my feet after two months,
I felt smothered. I just wanted to push everything away.

For a while, sheтАЩd been all there was to push.

The planetтАЩs gloom was palpable. I checked my uplink, the atmospherics in my suit. Still, the
murmuring-unintelligible, yet almost human. тАЬDonтАЩt you hear . . . way in the background? Maybe from
another crew?тАЭ

тАЬSerge, all I hear is your breathing.тАЭ

You donтАЩt go around insisting to your shipmates, or your former lovers, or both, that youтАЩre hearing
voices. I held my tongue.

тАЬRoger that,тАЭ I said. тАЬIтАЩll start the report.тАЭ

тАЬMark.тАЭ

тАЬPlanetтАЩs surface appears to be a smooth basaltic flow, cat-six origin, nonfriable, solid under my boots,
reticulated. IтАЩm standing among these angular, branching forms. One to three meters high, three to nine
segments, rough-surfaced-with shallow furrows-like . . . like nothing IтАЩve ever seen before.тАЭ Whatever
they were, they stretched into the distance, hundreds, perhaps thousands of them, to a misty blue horizon.