"Robert Reed - Sister Alice" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reed Robert)

about the Ten-Million-Year Peace. Success brought wealth, and wealth gave new opportunities. The
Chamberlains turned their vast energies on the stars. They explored the farthest reaches of the Milky
Way, and farther, finding the bones of lost species and making first contact with hundreds of important
alien species. And afterward, for these last long eons, it had been the Chamberlains who had mastered
the rapid terraforming of empty worlds. Age and disease had been conquered, and death rates were
vanishingly small, leaving an endless demand for new homes, and novel homes, and lovely places for
which aliens and humans both would pay substantial fees, particularly for inspired work done on
schedule.

Ord knew enough of his Family history to fill volumes, and he knew nothing. What he had mastered was
a speck compared to the true history. He knew the Great Wars were fought with savagery, billions
murdered, and the Earth itself left battered. But the Peace had endured for a hundred thousand centuries,
and throughout, the Families had given it backbone and the occasional guiding touch. Ord himself was a
whisper of a child, not even fifty years old. His powers as a Chamberlain lay in the remote future. Imaging
himself in a million years, he saw a semigod who was busily building green worlds at the Core, or
perhaps flying off to some far galaxy, exploring its wilderness while making new allies. But the actual
changes between today and tomorrow were mysterious to him. His mind and energies would swell, but
how would that feel to him? His senses would multiply, and time itself would slow to where seconds
became months. But what would such an existence be like? He had asked the brothers and sisters who
lived with him. He had worn them down with his inquiries. Yet not one could ever offer a clear,
compelling, or even halfway believable answer.

тАЬYouтАЩre too young to understand,тАЭ they would profess, their voices distant and bored. Even a little shrill.
тАЬJust wait and see,тАЭ they would recommend. тАЬPatience. Try patience. YouтАЩll learn when youтАЩre ready,
and that isnтАЩt now.тАЭ

But Ord sensed the truth. Like him, his siblings had no idea what the future held. Like all reasonable
questions, his were completely unoriginal. And the Chamberlains that he saw day by dayтАФsiblings
younger than a single millenniumтАФfelt as if they were trapped inside the same proverbial spacecraft,
adrift and lost and a little bit scared.

Three
тАЬWhen I lived here, when I was every kind of child, the mountains were new. The estates were new. Our
mansions were modest but comfortable homes meant for modest and deserving gods, and the Families
were utterly victoriousтАжwhile the galaxy at our feet seemed vast and nearly empty, full of endless and
intoxicating potentialsтАжтАЭ

тАФAliceтАЩs testimony

THE FORT WAS finished by midafternoon that next day, exactly on schedule, and after it passed the
standard inspection for volume and materials, the clan celebrated, walking up to the tube station together,
arms linked and everyone singing ancient Gold songs in a well-practiced chorus.

It was a brief ride home for Ord. He was deposited at the base of the long yard, looking up at an
expanse of smart snows and shaggy blue-green trees. A dozen giant bears came charging between the
trees, their broad faces smiling and their bellowing voices calling out, тАЬHim, it isтАжhim, himтАжit isтАж!тАЭ
Each bear had to be scratched behind the ears. There was no room for debate. Then all of them repaid
OrdтАЩs affection, putting his head into their mouths, holding him carefully while a rumbling purr moved
through his bones.