"Peter Watts - Home" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watts Peter)

it. It retreats a good twenty meters before a dim realization sinks
in.
Broca's area knows those sounds. It doesn't understand them тАФ
Broca's never much good at anything but mimicry тАФ but it has
heard something like them before. The reptile feels an
4 Peter Watts

unaccustomed twitch. It's been a long time since curiosity was any
use.
It turns and faces back from where it fled. Distance has smeared
the lights into a diffuse, dull glow. A faint staccato rhythm
vibrates in its chest.
The reptile edges back towards the beacon. One light divides
again into many; that dim, ominous outline still lurks behind them.
Once more the rhythm falls silent at the reptile's approach. The
strange object looms overhead in its girdle of light. It's smooth in
some places, pockmarked in others. Precise rows of circular
bumps, sharp-angled protuberances appear at closer range.
"You are approaching Linke Station, Aleutian Geothermal Array.
We're glad you've come back."
The reptile flinches, but stays on course this time.
"We can't get a definite ID from your sonar profile." The sound
fills the ocean. "You might be Deborah Linden. Deborah Linden.
Please respond if you are Deborah Linden."
Deborah Linden. That brings memory: something with four
familiar limbs, but standing upright, moving against gravity and
bright light and making strange harsh soundsтАФ
тАФlaughterтАФ
"Please respondтАФ"
It shakes its head, not knowing why.
"тАФif you are Deborah Linden."
Judy Caraco, says something else, very close.
"Deborah Linden. If you can't speak, please wave your arms."
The lights overhead cast a bright scalloped circle on the ocean
floor. There on the mud rests a box, large enough to crawl into.
Two green pinpoints sparkle from a panel on one of its sides.
"Please enter the emergency shelter beneath the station. It
contains food and medical facilities."
One end of the box gapes open; delicate jointed things can be
seen folded up inside, hiding in shadow.
"Everything is automatic. Enter the shelter and you'll be all
right. A rescue team is on the way."
Automatic. That noise, too, sticks out from the others.
Automatic almost means something. It has personal relevance.
Home 5

The reptile looks back up at the thing that's hanging overhead
like, like,
тАФlike a fistтАФ
like a fist. The underside of the sphere is a cool shadowy refuge;