"Allen Steele - Glorious Destiny" - читать интересную книгу автора (Steele Allen)

shoulder at Lee. "And what's this protocol? I don't remember anything like that."
A chill sensation runs down Lee's back. It's been so long since he programmed
the subroutine into the Alabama AI, he's nearly forgotten it existed. Now it's suddenly
become active. But why...?
Then he remembers the comet. Gabriel's Trumpet, as Jack Dreyfus called it just a
few minutes ago.
"Robert? What's going on?" Dana searches his face. "Do you want me to leave?"
she adds, her voice low as she starts to rise.
"No...no, stay with me, Chief," he says quietly. "You ought to know about
this...but let's keep it between us. At least right now, okay?"
"Sure. Okay." Dana settles back into her seat. She knows this is serious, not only
from the tone of his voice, but also because this is first the time he's addressed her as
chief in a long time. They may be partners now, but once again he's the captain of the
Alabama and she's one of his senior officers. Old habits die hard.
Lee turns the comp toward him, picks up the keyboard, types in the password:
helix. A few moments pass while the uplink is established, then the window
disappears and a new image appears on the screen. Now they're peering into the heart
of the comet, as seen by Alabama's onboard navigational telescope. The shape is hazy
and ill-defined, yet it's obviously not a natural object: a long, cylindrical form, with a
white-hot flare erupting from its aft end.
"That's a starship." Dana's voice is nearly a whisper.
"Uh-huh. I know." Lee hesitates. "Go find the council members. Don't tell them
what you saw, just get 'em here. We've got a situation."

Zamael / 2021

Carlos Montero expected to find a crowd at Lew's Cantina, and he was right; it's
Zamday night, the middle of the three-day weekend, and Lew Geary's place is the best
(and only) watering hole in Liberty. He hasn't come here to drink, though, as much as
he's tempted to do so; he's had a long day at the boat house, finishing the longboats he
and his crew have been building for the last few months. There's one quick errand that
needs to be done before he goes home to Wendy and Susan, but the moment he spots
Chris Levin, he knows it's not going to work out that way.
Not that he isn't welcome at the cantina. For the first few weeks after he returned
from his solo journey down the Great Equatorial, he was shunned by quite a few
people in town. Although most realized that David's death was accidental, nonetheless
they blamed him for persuading David and the others to steal a couple of canoes and
run away from Liberty. Before they left, they'd pilfered supplies from all over the
colony, including irreplaceable items like riffles and a satphone. Almost everything
they had stolen was eventually returned, yet Carlos soon discovered restoring
someone's flashlight was much easier than restoring their trust. Yet over the course of
the last four monthsтАФa solid year, by Gregorian reckoningтАФhe had gone out of his
way to make amends with all the people that he'd offended or wronged, until by the
end of c.y. 2 he was back in good graces with everyone.
Nearly everyone...
Chris is seated on a stool at the far end of the blackwood bar, a mug of sourgrass
ale parked in front of him. Carlos ignores his sullen gaze as he moves through the
packed room, greeting friends he encounters along the way. Bernie and Vonda Cayle
are sitting by the fireplace; they're old friends of his late mother and father, and never
gave up on him even in his darkest hour, yet although Bernie tries to wave him over