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

None of this made any sense and Jeri concentrated on not throwing up and
totally disgracing himself.
тАЬIt is overwhelming ... the first few times.тАЭ DelfinioтАЩs hands were on him
again, pushing him gently. тАЬYou will find it easier with practice. Sleep now. You
have done enough today. You have dissolved. Now we will begin to put you back
together. This has been a good first lesson.тАЭ
Webbing brushed his face. His hammock. Delfinio webbed him in and his
hands were gentle and too familiar and Jeri didnтАЩt much care. He had never felt this
drained in his life, fell instantly into sleep. Later he woke to DelfinioтАЩs hands again,
this time holding a packet of juice to his lips. He drank it, tasted things in it that
werenтАЩt juice, and went back to sleep. In his dreams he chased after bits of junk that
zipped around as if under power, trying to rip holes in the platforms. And all the time
he chased them, he felt ... attention.
As if he was not alone.
****
Time passed in a blur of exhaustion that never got any better. Jeri woke to
DelfinioтАЩs face, hating him as he forced Jeri to down food that he didnтАЩt taste, then
passworded him in, dissolving him again and again in a universe so vast that
sometimes he thought that he had ceased to exist. Emerging, spent, he ate what
Delfinio placed in his hands, slept, dreamed, and woke to do it all again.
Each time ... he saw more easily. Each time he saw ... less.
He stopped seeing everything all at once. In glimpses at first, then more and
more often, the overwhelming images faded away and he saw only the threats. Junk.
Rocks. Once, a ship slipping like a predator between the shadows of the platform
cans where a ship did not belong. He sent out the jocks, that time, with DelfinioтАЩs
supervision. He didnтАЩt dream at night anymore, simply slept.
And then, one morning, when he passworded in ... it worked.
He saw it. All of it. From the outer edges of Near Earth Orbit inward, as
familiar as his familyтАЩs apartment growing up on NYUp, as familiar as DelfinioтАЩs
face. The little rocks drifting inward stuck out like strangers. Without thinking he
pointed at one that was about to cross into a shipping lane. тАЬSingapore Six,тАЭ he said
because they were closest and it was their turn up in the rotation of rock jock teams.
Gotcha, SixтАЩs dispatcher murmured over JeriтАЩs implanted com link. On our
way, Dispatch.
Jeri startled.
Because it had been ... like breathing. He hadnтАЩt once thought about what he
was doing. And SixтАЩs dispatcher had responded to his point as it showed up on
their direct link. Six had called him тАЬDispatch.тАЭ
Delfinio wasnтАЩt passworded in. Jeri realized it and quickly passworded out.
No Delfinio. He had vanished. Panic ... totally illogical panic тАШcause where could he
go? ... speared him. Jeri pushed off, somersaulted off the hull beside DelfinioтАЩs
privacy closet, and slapped a palm against the lock plate. The hull cleared and there
he was, webbed into his hammock. Asleep. Holographic letters glowed in a rich,
plum purple in the air beside him.
It is a big job for one. The platform dispatchers cannot see it all, so it has
been a long time since I have merely slept. It is your shift. We will celebrate when I
wake. Congratulations, Dispatch.
Jeri toed himself back from the doorway and the hull opaqued behind him.
One alone. He thought about that as he passworded himself back into the system,
skimmed the universe of Near Earth Orbit easily, effortlessly, thoroughly. Felt a