"John Varley - Titan" - читать интересную книгу автора (Varley John)

"Make a mark every hundred meters or so. If we're on the same river one of us will come up behind the other, and the one in front can wait for the other to c up.##
"Sounds good. Uh, Rocky, how long are these batteries good for?"
Cirocco grimaced, and rubbed her forehead.
"Maybe a month of use. It could depend on how long we were ... you know, how long we were inside. I don't have any ideas on that. Do you?"
"No. Do you have any hair?"
"Not a strand." She rubbed her hand over her scalp, and no- ticed that it did not feel quite as smooth. "But it's growing back in. "

Cirocco walked downstream, holding the speaker and mike in place so they could talk to each other.
"I feel hungriest when I think about it," Gaby said. "And I'm thinking about it right now. Have you seen any of these little berry bushes?"
Cirocco looked around but didn't spot anything like that.
"The berries are yellow, and about as big as the end of your thumb. I'm holding one now. It's soft and translucent."
"Are you going to eat it?"
There was a pause. "I was going to ask you about that."
"We'll have to try something sooner or later. Maybe one won't be enough to kill you."
"Just make me sick," Caby laughed. "This one broke on my teeth. There's a thick jelly inside, like honey with a minty taste. It's dissolving in my mouth ... and now it's gone. The rind is not so sweet, but I'm going to eat it anyway. It might be the only part with any food value."
If even that, Cirocco thought. There was no reason why any part of it should sustain them. She was pleased that Gaby had given her such a detailed description of her sensations while eating the berry, but she knew the purpose of it. Bomb de-fusing teams used the same technique. One stayed away while the oth- er reported every action over the radio. If the bomb went off, the survivor learned something for the next time.
When they judged enough time had passed with no ill effect, Gaby began eating more of the berries. In time, Cirocco found some. They were almost as good as that first taste of water had been.

"Gaby, I'm about dead on my feet. I wonder how long we've been awake?"
There was a long pause, and she had to call again.
"Hm? Oh, hi. How did 1 get here?" She sounded slightly drunk.
Cirocco frowned. "Where's here? Gaby, what's happening?"
"I sat down for a minute to rest my legs. I must have fallen asleep."
"Try to wake up enough to find a good place for it." Cirocco was already looking around. It was going to be a problem. Nothing looked good, and she knew it was the worst possible idea to lie down alone in strange country. The only thing worse would be trying to stay awake any longer.
She went a short distance into the trees, and marveled at how soft the grass felt under her bare feet. So much better than the rocks. It would be nice to sit down in it for a minute.

She awoke on the grass, sat up quickly and looked all around. Nothing was moving.
For a meter in every direction from where she had slept, the grass had turned brown, dried out like hay.
She stood and looked down at a large rock. She had approached it from the downstream side while looking for a place to sleep. Now she walked around it, and on the other side was a large letter "G. "



CHAPTER FIVE

Gaby insisted on turning back. Cirocco didn't protest; it sounded good to her, though she could never have suggested it.
She walked downstream, often passing the marks Gaby had made. At one point she had to leave the sandy shore and go up onto the grass to avoid a large pile of boulders. When she reached the grass she saw a series of oval brown spots spaced like footprints. She knelt and touched them. They were dry and brittle, just like the grass where she had slept.
"I've found part of your trail," she told Gaby. "Your feet couldn't have touched the grass more than a second, and yet something in your body killed it."
"I saw the same thing when I woke up," Gaby said. "What do you think of it?"
"I think we secrete something that's poison to the grass. If that's true, we might not smell very good to the kind of large animals that might normally take an interest in us."
"That's good news."
"The bad part is that it might mean we have very dffierent sorts of biochemicals. That's not so good for eating."
"You're so much fun to talk to."
***********
"Is that you up ahead?"
Cirocco squinted into the pale yellow light. The river ran straight for a good distance, and just where it started to bend was a tiny figure.
"Yep. It's me, if that's you waving your arms."
Gaby whooped, a painful sound in the tiny earphone. Cirocco heard the sound again a second later, much fainter. She grinned, and then felt the grin getting bigger and bigger. She hadn't wanted to run, it was so like a bad movie, but she was running anyway and so was Gaby, taking absurdly long hops in the low gravity.
They hit so hard they were both breathless for a moment. Cirocco embraced the smaller woman and lifted her off her feet.
"D-d-d-damn, you look s-s-so good!" Gaby said. One of her eyelids was twitching, and her teeth chattered.
"Hey, hold on, take it easy," Cirocco soothed, rubbing Gaby's back with both hands. Gaby's smile was so wide it hurt to look at it.