"Robert Reed - The Caldera of Good Fortune" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reed Robert)

glows of other worlds. The universe was rendered accurately enough to
fool both casual and lazy eyesтАФthe familiar, indolent vision common to
those who have lived for eons inside the same house. Even the most
attentive species had limits to their skies. Point telescopes at the blackness
between any two stars, and a thousand dimmer suns should be waiting to
be found. And if you built even larger mirrors out of polished glass and
photon traps, and then peered between the intricate dusts or out toward
some galaxy floating on the edge of Creation, there always came a
pointтАФthat well-defined and inevitable line of exhaustionтАФwhere the stars
and dim galaxies that should be visible were missing. Were not.

It was the same for the Luckies. But their ceiling was managed by an
army of dedicated AIs working with the best available squidskinтАФan
intricate medium that produced light and darkness on a near-atomic scale.
Seeing where the illusions broke down ... well, that kind of telescope was
far beyond what most tourists could carry or drag up to the hamlet, much
less all the way to the high ridge.

тАЬI love this view,тАЭ Crockett allowed, hoping to generate conversation.
Or even just a neutral comment.

But the alien seemed to cherish its silence.

Luckies loved their sky, and with reason. Their home world was
tucked inside a thick bright arm of the Milky Way, not far from an active star
nursery. Gaze north, away from the ridge, and the false sky had a beauty
and majesty that even the shallowest soul would notice. But the local space
was even richer: Five massive moons orbited a substantial brown dwarf,
and the brown dwarf was dancing with a quiet little K-class sun, each orbit
taking years to accomplish. The Luckies lived on the third moon, tidally
locked and constantly massaged by its hefty neighbors. The inner
neighbors were volcanic superstars, baked in radiation and their own fierce
internal heat; while the outer moons were originally ice-clad and
exceptionally cold, but with deep seas waiting beneath their surface.

Crockett liked the illusion of this sky more than the illusion of the
landscape. Distant cavern walls were decorated with images of a frigid,
bleak and deceptively bland terrainтАФa slow-moving illusion showcasing
volcanoes and stubborn glaciers and wide expanses of lifeless, inert stone.

The Honored Guide turned, and not quite looking at those enormous
white eyes, he introduced himself by name.

His companion offered no sound or visible motion.

тАЬLuckies have rules,тАЭ warned Crockett. тАЬA resident like myself ... IтАЩm
allowed to live here because ages ago, I won a lottery. IтАЩm exceptionally
lucky, for a human. And with my address comes the understanding that only
my friends can be brought up to the ridge....тАЭ