"Kristine Katheryn Rusch - Alien Influences" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

Fictionwise
www.Fictionwise.com

Copyright ┬й1992 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

First published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1992
NOTICE: This work is copyrighted. It is licensed only for use by the original purchaser. Making copies of this work or
distributing it to any unauthorized person by any means, including without limit email, floppy disk, file transfer, paper
print out, or any other method constitutes a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe
fines or imprisonment.
Bought and released on #bookz by dongquang. Enjoy :)




Alien influences - Kristine Kathryn Rusch
I
The corridor smelled stale. John huddled against the display panel, replacing microchips with the latest
modelsтАФmore memory, more function. The near-robotic feel of the work was all that mattered: pull,
grab, replace; pull, grab, replace. They should have had a тАШdroid doing this, but they had given the work
to John, sure sign that his contract was nearly up.

He didn't mind. He had been on the trader ship for nearly a month, and it was making him nervous. Too
many people, too close. They watched him as if they expected him to go suddenly berserk and murder
them all in their sleep. He wouldn't have minded if their wariness had been based on his work as a bounty
hunter. But it wasn't. It was based on the events on Bountiful, things he had doneтАФand paid forтАФwhen
he was little more than a child.

Footsteps along the plastic floor. He didn't move, figuring whoever it was would have nothing to say to
him. A faint whiff of cologne and expensive illegal tobacco. The captain.

тАЬJohn, someone to see you.тАЭ

John looked up. The captain stood on the other side of the corridor, the lights from the display giving his
skin a greenish cast. Once, John had fancied this man his friend, but John hadn't had any real friends. Not
since he was fifteen years old. The day Harper betrayed him. The day they took Beth away.

тАЬI will not see anyone,тАЭ John said. Sometimes he played the role, the Dancer child everyone thought he
was. The one who never spoke in past tense, only present and future, using the subjunctive whenever
possible. The one who couched his thoughts in emotion because he had nothing else, no memory, no
ethics, no soul.

The captain didn't even blink. тАЬShe flew in special from Rotan Base.тАЭ

John stood and closed the display. A client, then. The time on the trader ship would end sooner than he
had expected.

He followed the captain through the winding corridors. The ventilation system was out. The entire ship
smelled of wet socks and too many people. Down one of the corridors, the techs were discussing
whether they wanted to fix the system or whether they wanted to wait until next planetfall. John would