"Allen Steele - Shepherd Moon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Steele Allen)

"I want to talk to you," she said.

His forefinger wavered above the canvas. "Uhh . . . can it wait?" His left hand
touched the palette as he selected another color. "I'm rather involved at the
moment."

He had learned to paint this way on the Moon, when he had done his Tycho series.
Conventional media were useless in hard vacuum; out here, oils, acrylics, and
watercolors either froze or instantly evaporated as soon as they were exposed.
But the canvas was linked to the fingertips of his right hand, which in turn was
controlled by the palette on his lap. He could thereby fingerpaint his sketches
while on the surface; later, when he was in the shirtsleeve environment of
Herschel Station's underground habitat, he could printout his sketches and paint
over them, using whatever medium he desired.

Other artists had attempted the same thing, and some of them had become
competent at the form, but Milos had invented the technique.

Bonestell, Pesek, Steinbach, Miller, Eggleton, Hardy, Bauch . . . he had been
compared to all the past masters, and had surpassed them all. The new Da Vinci,
the critics proclaimed after he had finished the Tycho series. The Rembrandt of
the cosmos, they said after he produced his Olympus Mons 'paintings. After he
had rendered his Jovian murals, they had given up on easy comparisons and had
begun to use the only term that was still relevant.

Genius.

He was the one and only true master.

"I'm going to leave you," she said.

"Oh. Okay." He gently touched the screen and his finger traced a long red streak
down the center of the canvas, he didn't speak again until the finger finished


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the line. One mistake, even the slightest hesitation of his hand, and the
painting was ruined. He would not work any other way, despite the canvas's
erase-and-save capabilities. "Then I'll see you at dinner?"

He didn't understand.

"No, Milos. Not at dinner." She hesitated. "I'm leaving you for good." She
paused. "Today. Within the hour. I'm catching the shuttle to Titan. A ship is
going back to Earth tomorrow and I intend to be on it."

There. It was said.