"Mary Rosenblum - Breeze from the Stars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rosenblum Mary)

and I mean who cares, anyway?тАЭ He stared at the slack hammock. тАЬI had the best hit
record in the class.тАЭ
тАЬAnyone can hit a rock.тАЭ Delfinio somersaulted again, unmoving, violating a
whole lot more laws of physics. тАЬSeeing what is out there to hit is talent. Go to bed,тАЭ
he said. тАЬGo to sleep and dream.тАЭ
тАЬDream of what?тАЭ Jeri said, but he muttered it under his breath and Delfinio
didnтАЩt answer.
Instead, he gave Jeri a password that allowed him to decorate the Dispatch
walls to his taste and to see the control fields, although Delfinio told him he was
locked out until he learned how to use them.
Jeri thought about landscapes to paint on the walls of the pod. Settled for a
view of Earth, with the New York Up platform visible, and the glittering thread of the
Elevator. Just to remind himself of what he wasnтАЩt doing. He wondered if Delfinio
knew what he had chosen, had a feeling that the old gnome did, but if so, he made
no comment. Delfinio finished his goo and then floated silently in the center of the
space, his eyes glazed, curled into a loose fetal position.
Checking sensors? Watching for hazards so he could send the jocks out? It
sure didnтАЩt look like he was doing much of anything.
Jeri went to bed, even though the raspberry beer buzzed in his blood and he
wasnтАЩt really sleepy.
****
He didnтАЩt dream ... not really. But at some point he woke to the soft darkness
of his hammock with the sense that he had been listening to a murmured
conversation. Delfinio, he thought, talking to himself. Almost before he could think
this, he slid back into slumber and didnтАЩt wake again until the light in his hammock
increased slowly and the sound of music woke him.
****
тАЬDid you sleep well?тАЭ Delfinio floated near the kitchen wall, eating cubes of
flavored tofu. He was upside down to JeriтАЩs orientation, silhouetted by the
Earthscape with which Jeri had decorated the hull. Jeri didnтАЩt change his position as
he touched himself a squeeze of black tea from the wall. Let Delfinio change his
orientation. He waited for Delfinio to ask him if he had dreamed, but instead, the old
gnome simply went on eating, popping the pale cubes of soy curd into his mouth,
chewing and swallowing without spilling a molecule.
Jeri sucked hot tea, sighed, and toed off the wall, torquing himself into a
matching orientation with Delfinio. тАЬI didnтАЩt dream,тАЭ he said.
тАЬToday, you get to surf the sensors with me.тАЭ DelfinioтАЩs eyes crinkled. тАЬYou
will dissolve. You will cease to exist and for a time ... it will be hard. But I will put
you back together. And then you will begin to comprehend Dispatch.тАЭ
Jeri drew a deep breath. тАЬLook, I know IтАЩve been ... angry about being here. I
guess I still am. And I donтАЩt understand anything. What makes this so special when
all four platforms have twenty-four-seven crews watching the sensors?тАЭ He drew
another breath, saw not one flicker of response in DelfinioтАЩs pale eyes. тАЬWould you
explain about the zodiac thing? If I was supposed to dream something last night ... I
didnтАЩt. So maybe you have the wrong person.тАЭ
Without warning, without seeming to move a muscle, Delfinio drifted suddenly
close. Jeri couldnтАЩt quite control his flinch and it set him drifting slowly toward the
wall. He flushed as Delfinio followed, a few centimeters separating them, so close
that he felt the heat radiating from DelfinioтАЩs flesh.
тАЬYou felt it.тАЭ Delfinio drifted suddenly away, so that the space between them