"Rudy Rucker & John Shirley - Pockets" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rucker Rudy)

"It was supposed to be for AI," said Puneet. "Quantum computing nanotech. The DeG
techs were bozos. They didn't know what they had when they started up the nanomatrixтАФI
even know how they invented it. There's no patents filed. It's like the thing fell out of a fl
saucer." His laugh was more than a little uneasy. "There's nobody to ask because the DeG
engineers are all dead. Sucked into the Big Bubble that popped out of their nanomatrix.
saw it on TV And then Uncle Sam closed them down."
"ButтАФwhy would the nanomatrix be licensed to Endless Media?" asked Dad. "You'r
entertainment company. And not a particularly reputable one, at that. Why you and not on
the big, legit players?"
"Options," said Manda with a shrug. "Market leverage. Networking synergies. And the
guys don't want to touch it. Too big a downside.
Part of the setup is we can't sue DeGroot if things don't work out. No biggie for End
Media. If the shit hits the fan, we take the bullet and go Chapter Eleven. We closed the
with DeGroot and the feds last week. Nobody's hardly seen the DeGroot CEO since
catastrophe, but he's still around. Guy named George Gravid. He showed up for a
one minute at closing, popped up out of nowhere, walking down the hall. Said he'd been
up in meetings with some backer dudesтАФ he called them Out-Monkeys. He looked like
wearing shades. I think he's strung out on something. Whatever. We did our due dilige
closed the deal, and a second later Gravid was gone." She waved a dismissive hand. "Bo
line is we're fully licensed to use the DeGroot technology. Us and a half-dozen other blue
groups. Each of us is setting up an operation in the DeGroot Plant on San Pablo Bay. And
time-share the access to the nanomatrix. The Endless Media mission in this context is to ma
safe and stable Big Bubble that provides a group entertainment experience beyond anyt
ever seen before."
"Watch how this simulation works," said Barley. "See the yellow square in the film? T
A Square. A two-dimensional Flatlander. He's sliding around, you wave. And that g
five-sided figure next to him, that's his son A Pentagon. And now I push up a bubble out o
space." A little spot of the Flatland film bulged up like a time-reversed water-drop. The b
swelled up to the shape of a sphere hovering above Flatland, connected to the little world
neck of glistening film. "Go in the pocket, Square," said Barley. "Get high."
The yellow square slid forward. He had a bright eye in one of his corners. For a minu
bumbled around the warped zone where the bubble touched his space, then found an entry p
and slid up across the neck of the bubble and onto the surface of the little ball. Into the pock
"This is what he sees," said Barley, pointing at one of the view-screens on the wall.
screen showed an endless lattice of copies of A Square, each of them turning and blinkin
unison. "Like a hall of mirrors. Now I'll make the bubble bounce. That's what makes the
go differently inside the pockets, you know."
The sphere rose up from the film. The connecting neck stretched and grew thin
but it didn't break. The sphere bounced back toward the film and the neck got fat, the sp
bounced up and the neck got thin, over and over.
"Check this out," said Barley, changing the image on the viewscreen to show a circle
repeatedly shrank and grew. "This is what Square Junior sees. The little Pentagon. He st
outside the bad old pocket, you wave? To him the pocket looks like a disk that's getting bi
and smaller. See him over there on the film? Waiting for Pa. Like little Wendel in the cond
San Pablo Bay."
"Go to hell," said Wendel.
"Don't pick on him, Barley," put in Manda. "Wendel's part of our team."
"Whoah," said Barley. "Now Mr. Square's trip is over." The sphere bounced back
flattened back into the normal space of Flatland.
"You forgot to mention the stabilizer ring," said Dad.