"Michael Stackpole "The Bacta War"" - читать интересную книгу автора

one could feel with the sense of touch, that was immediate and present in real
time.
Reaching out she let her fingers play across the inside of the circular
skylight. Her gentle touch conveyed a legion of different textures, some soft,
some smooth, and others rough or sharp. She likened the progression to that of
the music in a
symphony, except that in choosing which way to stroke the surface, she could
determine what she felt and in what order. If I were worried, soft and smooth
would soothe me, whereas if I were manic, sharp might caution me.
Similarly, a whole variety of textures had been worked by the mason who had
created the room she had been given. The walls had gentle ridges that swelled
like waves on an ocean. They swirled into spirals and opened on smooth voids
that encouraged placid tranquillity. The raised platform on which she slept had
been cupped like a crater to hold her in, yet the sides and walls nearby were
sleek and almost slippery to the touch. Near the doorhole, raised bumps warned
of potential harm and the need for caution.
"They've thought of everything."
"Not quite." A hand reached up and grabbed the sill at the bottom of the door,
then the tendons and muscles tensed in the arm attached to it and Elscol pulled
herself into view. "The Vratix were nice enough to give us some footholds for
climbing up here, but I'd still prefer a rope ladder."
Iella laughed and helped pull the smaller woman into the room. Because the
Vratix's hind legs were so powerful, leap-ing up to the doorholes of rooms set
well above the ground was simple. The need for stairs never developed, so Vratix
architecture never included them. Visiting humans were nor-mally housed in
public areas, but advertising the presence of Ashern agents was not a good idea,
so they were secreted away in rooms that were difficult for humans to move into
and out of.
"Sixtus isn't with you?"
"No. He's out wandering through the rain forest." Elscol shrugged and adjusted
the blaster on her right hip. "I've known him for years now, and there are just
times he has to drift away. I suspect the Imps did some nasty stuff to him and
his people when they trained him to be Special Ops and occa-sionally he has to
fight it."
"Never had anyone exactly like him in CorSec, but I un-derstand the need to get
away. What's going on? Change of plans?"
Elscol shook her head. "Nope, we'll leave here after
dark, as planned, and move to the next haven. Just seeing us here seems to be
good for Vratix morale. I don't really have any sense of how good the Vratix
will be in combat, but they're fighters at heart."
"You mean at pulmonary arch."
"Doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?"
Iella shook her head. "No, not really."
Elscol smiled and seated herself on the foot of lella's bed. "Well, doesn't
matter. Armed with vibroblades, force pikes, or blasters, we can get enough
Vratix that we can overwhelm humans in Xucphra City. Some of the Ashern indicate
their training cadres are swelling in our wake. We come through, they get more
volunteers. Sixtus has specified benchmarks for training, and it looks like
we'll have our force in a couple of months."
"I'd feel better about them if we ever got to see their warriors in action."