"Dan Simmons - Orphans of the Helix" - читать интересную книгу автора (Simmons Dan)

The red-band male, Patek Georg, to no one's surprise, accepted the position of chief security
officer -- both for the ship's formidable defenses and during any contact with the Ousters. Only
Dem Lia could override his decisions on use of ship weaponry.
The young white-band woman, Den Soa, was to be in charge of communications and diplomacy, but
she requested and Peter Delen Dem Tae agreed to share the responsibility with her. Peter's
training in psychology had included theoretical exobiopsychology.
Dr. Sam would monitor the health of everyone aboard and study the evolutionary biology of the
Ousters and Templars if it came to contact.
Their ebony-band male, Jon Mikail Dem Alem, assumed command of life support -- both in
reviewing and controlling systems in the Helix along with the appropriate AI, but also arranging
for necessary environments if they met with the Ousters aboard ship.


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Oam Rai, the oldest of the nine and the ship's chess master, agreed to coordinate general ship
systems and to be Dem Lia's principal advisor as events unfolded.
Kem Loi, the astronomer, accepted responsibility for all long-range sensing, but was obviously
eager to use her spare time to study the binary system. "Did anyone notice what old friend our
white star ahead resembles?" she asked.
"Tau Ceti," said Res Sandre without hesitation.
Kem Loi nodded. "And we saw the anomaly in the placing of the forest ring."
Everyone had. The Ousters preferred G2-type stars, where they could grow their orbital forests
at about one AU from the sun. This ring circled its star at only 0.36 AUs.
"Almost the same distance as Tau Ceti Center from its sun," mused Patek Georg. TC2, as it had
been known for more than a thousand years, had once been the central world and capital of the
Hegemony. Then it had become a backwater world under the Pax until a Church cardinal on that world
attempted a coup against the beleaguered pope during the final days of the Pax. Most of the
rebuilt cities had been leveled then. When the Helix had left human space eighty years after that
war, the Aeneans were repopulating and repopularizing the ancient capital, rebuilding beautiful,
classical structures on broad estates and essentially turning the lance-lashed ruins into an
Arcadia. For Aeneans.
Assignments given and accepted, the group discussed the option of awakening their immediate
family members from cryogenic sleep. Since Spectrum Helix families consisted of triune marriages --
either one male and two females or vice versa -- and since most had children aboard, this was a
complicated subject. Jon Mikail discussed the life-support considerations -- which were minor --
but everyone agreed that it would complicate decision-making with family awake only as passengers.
It was agreed to leave them in deep sleep, with the one exception of Den Soa's husband and wife.
The young white-band diplomat admitted that she would feel insecure without her two loved ones
with her, and the group allowed this exception to their decision with the gentle suggestion that
the reawakened mates would stay off the command deck unless there was compelling reason for them
to be there. Den Soa agreed at once. Saigy├┤ was summoned and immediately began awakening Den Soa's
bond pair. They had no children.
Then the most central issue was discussed.
"Are we actually going to decelerate to this ring and involve ourselves in these Ousters'
problems?" asked Patek Georg. "Assuming that their distress signal is still relevant."
"They're still broadcasting on the old bandwidths," said Den Soa, who had jacksensed into the
ship's communications system. The young woman with blond hair looked at something in her virtual
vision. "And that monster machine is still headed their way."