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

"I'm exhausted. Messing with critpath analysers. Boris and Mik went toy-happy as soon as they woke
up; comes of having something to plot. They're both the same: no respect for humanity. Want me to staff
for them. How about you?"

"You mean they've been up for days?" She looks annoyed. "I was meant to be first out --"

The smell, the touch, of her: I bend forward, snap out of the sleep restraint. "Yes," I say; "but the plans
changed. " She lets go of me. "They figured it's more important to know who you need first, before they
pull them through. So, load one meat chassis before another. What does it mean to them? I'm here,
you're here. And I'm tired, while you want to talk. Is there no justice in Hell?"

She laughs, a little brittle, holding her distance now. "Do you ever think of anything else? Sex or
violence?" Reaches out and pinches my arm in a way which sends a thrill through me. "What are you
thinking?"

"I was born to go fast and explode," I say. Remembering: dropping through layers of atmosphere,
chutes banging open overhead. Yes, I go fast and explode. I look over her shoulder. The cabin door
has closed automatically, conserving airflow. "You're cold."

"Huh." She leans closer, hanging on my shoulders and hips by fingertips and agile toes. Microgravity drifts
us both backward into the net of sleep webbing. "I'm here now. Aah, shit." She looks away, troubled.
That black coif of thick hair is missing; she purses her lips, holds her breath in for a moment. I freeze,
trying to memorize the shape and presence of her, trying to make myself a camera. Trying to understand
that initial flash of fascination, back on the colony, why something like it is still there despite the
intervening nightmare. "I've been doing some thinking. There's a long way to go, I admit. I'm not sure
what I want. When you arrived I was on a backswing from something messy. But I like you. I'm just not
sure --"

"Why the revelation?" I ask, heart pounding.

She hesitates a moment before replying: "Don't try to push me, Oshi. There's a lot you don't know."

I stare. "That goes without saying," I say. I feel very cold: "were you in the colony medicentre? Do you
know what happened there after the radiation storm?"

She looks startled. "No --" Stop. "Was it bad?"

"You can have no idea," I say.

"Never mind then," she adds. "It's over. Just give me some time and come visit me. I just wanted to say
that." She half-smiles, then leans closer and hugs me. "Okay?"

"Yes. What happened to --"

She looks at me oddly. "You happened, that's what."

I feign incomprehension to cover my real confusion. "I happened? I don't understand."

"You wouldn't," she says. A little tightly, "There was no room in the Duat. Everyone knew everyone else,
and we all had our skeletons to bury from the time ... before then. Coming on so direct was, a bit,