"Alastair Reynolds - Minla's Flowers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reynolds Alastair)

тАЬThey were using long beeps and short beeps. IтАЩm afraid I didnтАЩt get the
chance to determine the source of the transmission.тАЭ

тАЬKeep listening. I want to meet them.тАЭ

тАЬDonтАЩt raise your hopes. If there are people down there, theyтАЩve been out of
contact with the rest of humanity for a considerable number of mil-lennia.тАЭ

тАЬI only want to stop for repairs. They canтАЩt begrudge me that, can they?тАЭ

тАЬI suppose not.тАЭ

Then something occurred to Merlin, something he realized he should have
asked much earlier. тАЬAbout the accident, ship. I take it you know why we were
dumped out of the Waynet?тАЭ

тАЬIтАЩve run a fault-check on the syrinx. There doesnтАЩt appear to be any-thing
wrong with it.тАЭ

тАЬThatтАЩs not an answer.тАЭ

тАЬI know.тАЭ Tyrant sounded sullen. тАЬI still donтАЩt have an explanation for what
went wrong. And I donтАЩt like that any more than you do.тАЭ

****

Tyrant fell into the atmosphere of Lecythus. The transmissions had resumed,
allowing the ship to pinpoint the origin to one of the larger airborne masses.

Shortly afterward, a second source began transmitting from another floating
mass, half the size of the first, located three thousand kilometers to the west. The
way the signals started and stopped suggested some kind of agonizingly slow
communication via radio pulses, one that probably had nothing to do with MerlinтАЩs
arrival.

тАЬTell me thatтАЩs a code in our database,тАЭ Merlin said.

тАЬIt isnтАЩt. And the code wonтАЩt tell us much about their spoken language, IтАЩm
afraid.тАЭ

Up close, the broken edges of the floating mass soared as tall as a cliff. They
were a dark, streaked gray, infinitely less regular than they had ap-peared from
space. The edge showed signs of weathering and erosion. There were wide ledges,
dizzying promontories, and cathedral-sized shadowed caves. Glinting in the low light
of Calliope, ladders and walkwaysтАФimpos-sibly thin and spindly scratches of
metalтАФreached down from the icebound upper reaches, following zigzag trajectories
that only took them a fraction of the way to the perilous lower lip, where the floating
world curved back under itself.