"Sarah Zettel - Kingdom of Cages" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zettel Sarah)

fingertips to her forehead, like she was receiving messages from the
Great Beyond. "I think he's working undercover for the Authority," she
said, flipping her eyes open. "I think there's a conspiracy to poison one
of the colony worlds and he's going to find out who's behind it."
One of the old men next to them wheezed with laughter. "I think you've
got too much imagination for a hallway baby."
Anger, hot and sudden, flashed through Chena. "What would you know,
you limp oldтАФ"
The door swished open and Teal seized her arm before Chena could
finish the insult. Mom strode into the waiting room. Chena scrambled to
her feet, stuffing her thumb between her first two fingers and stabbing
upward to give the old man the piss-off sign. He waved her off and
turned back to his friend.
"Well, Supernova, well, Starlet, that was something else, wasn't it?"
Mom's voice was light, but her face was tired, even grim. "Gods below,
I'm tired." She had wrapped her arms around Teal and Chena and leaned
back against the wall.
There was no time to ask questions then, because a different woman
walked in right behind Mom. She wore a brown tunic and a long skirt.
Her skin was sandy gold and her black hair was swept back and bundled
into some kind of little mesh bag. She said her name was Madra and that
she was the coordinator for the village of Offshoot. Then she'd read off
a list of names of people who were supposed to come with
herтАФincluding Chena, Teal, and Helice Trust.
So they lined up and walked down the corridor and out a door, where
there'd been a brief glimpse of sky, and shifting sand and pebbles
underfoot, and a huge glass and silver wire thing that Chena knew was a
dirigible only because of a rig game she'd played once, and they were
lead into the compartment under the areogel balloon. At least in this one
there were enough chairs, and they were soft and comfortable, even if
the immigrants did have to be strapped in, and they flew.
At first the feeling was him, like the acceleration of the car on the space
cable, but then it got boring. There wasn't anything to see except the
walls and the back of the chair in front of her. There were no jacks for
her comptroller, or game rigs, or anything, and she found herself missing
the space elevator. They'd been cooped up in there for two days in one
big room with capsule bunks on the walls, but that had been fun.
There'd been rigs and screens and five other kids, including Dea Jemma
Tosh, whom Chena had grown up with, and Mom had been relaxed and
happy, telling them over and over that this was a new beginning.
But the new beginning was turning out to be as boring as used grease.
That was Pandora out there. Pandora. The world where people walked
around counting flowers, with chips in their heads to tell them what to
do. Where they were so busy with plants and animals, they didn't even
know how to fix their own machinery and they had to get Athenians to
take care of everything for them, from replacement parts to satellite
maintenance. Where they had beaten the Diversity Crisis and all the
babies were born healthy and alive. A thousand conflicting stories ran
through Chena's head. NobodyтАФwell, nobody Chena knewтАФknew that
much about Pandora. There was no public access network between the