"Rudy Rucker - Chu and the Nants" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rucker Rudy)

Nektar thought about Chu's death over and over and over until her mind blanked out.

At some point she got back up. Ond was sitting on the back stoop, staring up at the sky. He looked
unutterably sad.

"What are you doing?" Nektar asked him.

"Thinking about going to be with Chu," said Ond.

"You're the one who let the nants eat him. Heartless bastard."

"I thought--I thought he'd pass my code on to them. But it's been almost an hour now and nothing
is--wait! Did you see that?"

"What?" said Nektar drearily. Her son was dead, her husband was crazy, and soulless machines were
eating her beloved Gaia.

"The Trojan fleas just hatched!" shouted Ond. "Yes. I saw a glitch. The nants are running backward.
Reversible computation. Look up at the sky. The scrolls are spiraling inward now instead of out. I knew
it would work." Ond was whooping and laughing as he talked. "Each of the nants preserves a memory
trace of every single thing it's done. And my Trojan fleas are making them run it all backward."

"Chu's coming back?"

"Yes. Trust me. Wait an hour."

It was the longest hour of Nektar's life. When it was nearly up, Ond's generator ran out of gas, sputtering
to a stop.

"So the nants get us now," said Nektar, too wrung out to care.

"I'm telling you, Nektar, all the nants are doing from now on is running in reverse. They'll all turn back into
ordinary matter and be gone."

Out past the end of the yard there was a dense spot in the swarm of nants. The patch mashed itself
together and became--

"Chu!" shouted Nektar, running out toward him, Ond close behind. "Oh, Chu!"

"Don't squeeze me," said Chu, shrugging his parents away. Same old Chu. "I want to see Willy. Why
don't the nants eat me?"

"They did," exulted Ond. "And then they spit you back the same as before. That's why you don't
remember. Willy will be back. Willy and his parents and their house and all the other houses and people
too, and all the plants, and eventually even Mars. You did good, Chu. 70FFDEF6, huh?"

For once Chu smiled. "I did good."
****