"Charles Stross - Trunk and Disorderly" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stross Charles)

must be inebriated! Pip pip!тАЭ Jeremy let out a squealing trumpet blast close
to my ear and began to kick. Not having a third hand with which to steady
him, I let go and he shot off ahead of us, stubby ears flapping madly in the
low Martian gravity.

тАЬOh dear,тАЭ said Miss Feng.

тАЬWhy donтАЩt you just run along and see to my chambers?тАЭ I asked,
irritated by the thought that the bloody elephant might poop in the
punchbowl (or worse, dip his whistle in it) before I got there. тАЬLeave the
beast to me, IтАЩll sort him out later.тАЭ

тАЬInebriate! Inebriate!тАЭ cried Toadsworth, hurtling forward, the lights on
his cortical turret flashing frantically. тАЬTo the par-ty!тАЭ

****

7. In Which Ralph Explains the Nature of his Relationship with Laura

Now dash it all, it behooves a young fellow to remain discreet and
close-lipped about matters of an embarrassingly personal nature. But itтАЩs
also true to say that this story wonтАЩt make a lot of sense without certain
intimate understandingsтАФa nodтАЩs as good as a wink to a deaf robot and all
thatтАФand in any event, ever since the minutiae of my personal affairs
became part of the public gossip circuit following the unfortunate affair
involving the clankie dominatrix, the cat burglar, and the alien hive-mind, it
would be somewhat hypocritical of me to stand upon my privacy. So where
a more modest cove might hesitate, allow me to step in it and, at risk of
offending your sensibilities, explain something about my complex
relationship with Laura.

I sometimes fancy that life must have been so much simpler back in
the days of classical Anglo-American civilization, when there were only two
openly acknowledged genders and people didnтАЩt worry about whether their
intimate affairs were commutative, transitive, or reflexive. No
clankie/squishie, no U or Non-U, nothing but the antique butch/femme
juxtaposition, and that was pretty much determined by the shape of the
external genitalia you were born with. Perverts dashed well knew what they
were, and life was simple. Modern life is enough to drive a cove to drugs in
my opinion, but as a Butch U Squishie of impeccable ancestry I have the
social option of maintaining a mistress, not to mention the money, and thatтАЩs
where Laura comes in.

Laura is very clankie and very frilly femme with it, but with a squishy
core and sufficiently non-U to make a casual relationship just barely
acceptable to polite society on the usual sub-rosa Morganatic basis. We
met on a shooting weekend at one of the Pahlavi girlтАЩs ranches on Luna,
doing our bit for evolution by helping thin the herd of rampaging feral bots
during their annual migration across the Sea of Tranquillity. IтАЩm not sure
what she was doing there, but I think it was something to do with working