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

speculating and hoping for the moment and get ready for this rendezvous in ... " She paused.
"Twenty-seven hours eight minutes if the Ousters continue sailing out-system to meet us," said
Saigy├┤ on cue.
"Res Sandre," Dem Lia said softly, "why don't you and your propulsion AI begin work now on
making sure that our last bit of deceleration is mild enough that it isn't going to fry a few tens
of thousands of these Ousters coming to greet us. That would be a bad overture to diplomatic
contact."
"If they are coming out with hostile intent," said Patek Georg, "the fusion drive would be one
of our most potent weapons against ... "
Dem Lia interrupted. Her voice was soft but brooked no argument. "No discussion of war with
this Ouster civilization until their motives become clear. Patek, you can review all ship
defensive systems, but let us have no further group discussion of offensive action until you and I
talk about it privately."
Patek Georg bowed his head.
"Are there any other questions or comments?" asked Dem Lia. There were none.
The nine people rose from the table and went about their business.

A largely sleepless twenty-four-plus hours later, Dem Lia stood alone and god-sized in the
white star's system, the G8 blazing away only a few yards from her shoulder. The braided worldtree
was so close that she could have reached out and touched it, wrapped her god-sized hand around it,
while at the level of her chest the hundreds of thousands of shimmering wings of light converged
on the Helix, whose deceleration fusion tail had dwindled to nothing. Dem Lia stood on nothing,
her feet planted steadily on black space, the alien forest ring roughly at her belt line, the
stars a huge sphere of constellations and foggy galactic scatterings far above, around, and beyond
her.
Suddenly Saigy├┤ joined her. The tenth-century monk assumed his usual virreal pose: cross-
legged, floating easily just above the plane of the ecliptic a few respectful yards from Dem Lia.
He was shirtless and barefoot, and his round belly added to the sense of good feeling that
emanated from the round face, squinted eyes, and ruddy cheeks.
"The Ousters fly the solar winds so beautifully," muttered Dem Lia.
Saigy├┤ nodded. "You notice, though, that they're really surfing the shock waves riding out
along the magnetic-field lines. That gives them those astounding bursts of speed."
"I've been told that, but not seen it," said Dem Lia. "Could you ... "
Instantly the solar system in which they stood became a maze of magnetic-field lines pouring
from the G8 white star, curving at first and then becoming as straight and evenly spaced as a
barrage of laser lances. The display showed this elaborate pattern of magnetic-field lines in red.
Blue lines showed the uncountable paths of cosmic rays flowing into the system from all over the
galaxy, aligning themselves with the magnetic-field lines and trying to corkscrew their way up the
field lines like swirling salmon fighting their way upstream to spawn in the belly of the star.
Dem Lia noticed that magnetic-field lines pouring from both the north and south poles of the sun
were kinked and folded around themselves, thus deflecting even more cosmic waves that should
otherwise have had an easy trip up smooth polar-field lines. Dem Lia changed metaphors, thinking
of sperm fighting their way toward a blazing egg, and being cast aside by vicious solar winds and


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surges of magnetic waves, blasted away by shock waves that whipped out along the field lines as if
someone had forcefully shaken a wire or snapped a bullwhip.