"Kristine Kathryn Rusch - The Room of Lost Souls" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

He shakes his head. тАЬIтАЩve found people willing to go inside. Nothing
comes out.тАЭ

тАЬI thought you said you went with Riya Trekov. That she has a way
out.тАЭ

тАЬShe does. People go in. They come out. But theyтАЩre always alone.тАЭ

Now I ask him. тАЬWhatтАЩll you do if you get her? She wonтАЩt be the
same. YouтАЩre certainly not.тАЭ

тАЬI know,тАЭ he says, and for a moment, I think heтАЩs going to leave it at
that. Then he adds, тАЬNone of us are.тАЭ

****
 We talk long into the night.

Or rather, I listen as he talks.

He tells me what he knows about the Room. He has an almost
encyclopedic knowledge of the place, combined with a series of theories,
myths, and legends he has collected over the decades.

What it all comes to is what I already know: No one knows who built
the Room or the station itтАЩs on. No one knows when it was builtтАФonly that it
predates the known human colonization of this sector. No one knows what
its purpose was or why it was abandoned.

No one knows anything, except that people who go in do not come
out.

Unless theyтАЩre protected by Riya TrekovтАЩs device.

The device, as my father explains it, is a personal shield, developed
by a company thatтАЩs related to my fatherтАЩs old business. The shield relies
on technology so old that few people understand it.

Sometimes I think all of human history is about the technology weтАЩve
lost. WeтАЩre constantly reinventing things.

Or recovering them.

Apparently, this device is something reinvented.

How it works is simple: It acts like a space suitтАФcreating a bubble
around the user that contains both environment and gravity and anything
else the user might need.

It has the same flaws a space suit has as well: It allows a person to
enter an environment but not interact with itтАФor at least, not interact in