"Charles Stross - Duat" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stross Charles)

brightness, a white of total saturation, meaningless optical noise ... hanging in front of her
face like a threat and a reminder ...

"No." She knew what came next. Next the sight peeled away from the bones, the eyes
reverting to fiery dust as Ivan left her again; no, this can't be happening! -- it was the
sense of horror that was worst, the helplessness of knowing that this nightmare had
already happened and that nothing could ever restore him to her --

Then a hand of stone descended on her shoulder and shook her until she woke up.

" No!" She said it aloud, awake now, aware that her eyes were shut: yet still she tried to
sleep, blindly trying to thrust herself back into the dream in which he was still alive and
warm -- "go 'way."

"Oshi. You've got to wake up. Now."

Shivers raced along her spine: she bolted upright in bed and opened her eyes, floating
combat-ready in the low gravity of a space station far from home. "What are you doing in
here?" she demanded. "Don't do that!"

Helmut, a damp, glum presence, blinked at her from across the room. He was part of the
backup crew who had scraped Oshi in after her last mission, gathering up the pieces with
infinite care: medical support. An engineer to combat-tune the reflexes of front-line staff
like Oshi. "I have remote override on the microdoctors in your spinal ganglia. Just kick-
fired a few nerve trunks ..."

She relaxed fractionally. "Yes? You've got some more explaining to do, then. What time
is it?"

"Morning, local. Look, things are happening. The Boss wants to see you. And there's
some kind of alert in progress; we've been told to get ready for redeployment real soon
now. Back to civilization, maybe. You want to get dressed? I could fill you in over
breakfast."

"There'll be time." She stood up, naked, flexing muscles that were stronger than they had
been even yesterday. She stared at him, unblinkingly. "Would you mind leaving?"

"Oh, sorry --" Helmut turned to the door, flushing like an exposed shoplifter.

"It's not that," she said flatly, bending to retrieve an overall from the chair where the

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2: In the Duat

wardrobe had placed it: "I just want some time to think. Please." The Boss wants to talk to
me. That was one thought she could do without. She'd scrupulously avoided thinking
about it, ever since she'd been rescued from the shuttle in low orbit, even though she knew
it was inevitable. Well then, she would tackle it in due course. One step at a time.

Oshi's room was incredibly bare. There was nothing but a white-walled cell with a bed in