"Sean Williams - Saturn Returns" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williams Sean)

jumpsuit made of material that whispered softly as he raised his hands to
touch his chest and explore his face.
Something was wrong, or at least very different. He had breasts.
His eyes opened wide. A grey bulkhead greeted him, less than a meter from his
face. He raised his head and looked down along his foreign, curved body. A
coffinlike space enclosed him on all sides except his left, where it opened
onto a larger chamber. The surface beneath him was padded: a bed of some
kind, yes, but one of spartan proportions. There was room for just one
person, and no space to sit up. Two narrow striplights provided the sole
illumination, cold and characterless. The chamber beyond his bunk was dark
and sounded empty.
His breathing became more rapid. He had no recollection at all of how he had
arrived in such a place, or become female into the bargain. He was profoundly
out of his depth. He wasтАФ
"Who are you?" asked a voice.
He jumped. The words came from a speaker built into the wall to his right
that didn't seem to be functioning with perfect clarity, for the voice came
with more than a hint of static.
"What's your name?" it asked him.
"Don't you know?" His own voiceтАФreal, not rememberedтАФcould have been a man's,
contralto and throaty from disuse. He cleared his throat. The timbre didn't
change. "You brought me here, didn't you?"
Instead of answering him, the voice asked, "Who do you think you are?"
"We could ask each other questions all day." He lowered his head back onto the
thin mattress, already drained by the short exchange. "Tell me who you are,
first. Then we can talk."
"We are the Jinc, fifth ganglion of the Noh exploratory arm. Perhaps you have
heard of us." The voice addressing him sounded faintly hopeful but not
expectant. "We trawl the outer edge of the galaxy for clues to the nature of
God."
He suppressed a momentary discomfort on finding that he was addressing a group
mind. He didn't know why that should bother him. "God? Why?"
"We have reasons. In the course of our explorations, we found you."
"What do you mean, you found me?"
"Your body, in a manner of speaking, drifting. We will provide full details
shortly. You need know for now only that we spared no effort in restoring you
to consciousness and, we hope, full physical fitness." He flexed his fingers.
Despite the odd alteration in gender, he did feel fine enough. "I'm well, I
suppose. What happened to me? What was I doing so far from the Continuum?"
"Is that the last thing you remember, the Continuum?"
"Why would that be unusual?"
"We will explain. Your situation is unique, and we do expect there to be some
injury to your memory. It would help us to know your name, if you do in fact
know it."
"Some injury ..." He rubbed his forehead. An alarming dizziness threatened to
consume him as he tried to recall what had brought him to such a strait. His
body, drifting on the galactic fringes; rescued by deep-space scavengers and
turned into a woman; his memory impaired. "My name is Imre Bergamasc," he
said. "That I'm sure of. The rest..." He rubbed harder. His brain was as
heavy and sluggish as lead. "I don't know. I do have memories, butтАФIтАФthey