"S. M. Stirling & David Drake - The General 01 - The Forge" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stirling S. M)

thick slab slid open with a protesting screech of tearing metal.
Raj dropped to the floor in a crouch, panting slightly.

"Showoff," Thom said as he sidled past. There was surprise
and slight envy in his tone; his friend grinned.

"A strong back comes in useful for other things than pulling a
plow," he said, raising his own lantern. "Let's keep turning to the
right."
***

Raj genuflected again, touching brows and heart to the
ancient, dust-shrouded computer terminal.

"Look, there's not much point in going on," he said. This was
the fifth level down from their starting-point. Emptiness, offices
and storage space, eerily uncorroded metal and the smell of
damp stone. And enough computer equipment to stock every
church in the Civil Government and the barbarian lands as well.

Poplanich ran a hand over the swivel chair before the
terminal. Dust puffed up behind his hand, silver-yellow in the
light of the lantern.

"Feel this," he said, fascinated. "It looks like leather, but new
leather. This area's been abandoned since the Fall, it should have
rotted away to shreds." He swung the chair back and forth. "A
greased axle won't turn that smoothly, and this doesn't even
squeak."

Raj shrugged. "They had powers before the Fall. The Spirit
withdrew them when they proved unworthy."

Thom nodded absently; that was from the Creed. "I still think
this was a naval installation," he said, picking up a plastic sign
from one desk. It was made of two strips joined at one long edge;
one side was blank, and the other bore black letters in the Old
Namerique tongue. Wez cainna bie fyr'd: slavs godda bie sold.
His lips moved silently, construing it first into modern
Namerique, and then into his native Sponglish. He frowned
absently. Well, of course, he thought.

"I don't know," Raj replied, heading cautiously out into the
corridor again. "The Book of the FallтАФhey, there's a stairwell
leading down here, hand me the paintstick againтАФsays the
military joined the Rebellion." They had both sat through
enough droning sermons on that.

Thom's teeth flashed in a grin. "Just as my own
interpretationтАФand please keep this from the Invigiles Against