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"Daughter," Tate said. "Why can't you obey?" "I do not understand 'snot creature,'" Daughter
replied.
"Oh okay the creature directly above the computer pit I'm sitting in," Tate rambled. "It
has no bones, no exoskeleton, only an amorphous body "
Charlie yelled.
like >>
"A FLUID body!" Tate yelled. "Liquid. Like water. Can you identify it now?"
"Isolation completed," Daughter said smoothly. Tate could hardly hear her over the shouting
in her head. Amelia, Yago, and Charlie were all making noisy suggestions of how she should
cope with the computer
"She said isolation completed!" Tate shouted. "Now could you all please shut up!"
The voices died down into a sullen silence.
Tate stared doubtfully up at the ceiling. Duncan was still there. He wasn't surrounded by any
barrier she could see. On the other hand, he wasn't moving any closer.
Now might be a good time to move, Tate told herself. She began to ease out of the chair. Then
A glistening drop split from Duncan's body. It fell toward Tate's face on a collision course
with her eyes and stopped in midair just above her head.
"Ha," Tate breathed in relief. She laughed softly.
"Way to go, Daughter," she whispered.
Yago asked quietly.
to give it to you not bad >>
"We're just getting started," Tate told him. She licked her chapped lips nervously and slid
slowly back into the chair. The problem was she didn't trust Daughter any more than she'd
trusted Mother. Duncan could have programmed in all sorts of booby traps. Insurance to
protect himself from some inevitable confrontation with Amelia or Charlie.
Even if Duncan's programming was clean, it seemed his virus was too strong. Tate had never
worked with such a primitive machine. She had to be careful. If Daughter misunderstood
her... "I want you " Tate began carefully. Then she heard a voice that wasn't in her head. A
human voice. "Okay, you win," the voice said with a disarming chuckle. "I give up."
Tate froze.
Yago said coldly.
Charlie still sounded afraid.
doesn't have a mouth. I couldn't >>
think.>>
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"We don't have to rush," Tate said to steady herself. "He's trapped. We have all the time we
need to think."
now.>>
He's unpredictable and completely self-absorbed.>>
Yago began.
"You don't really want to get rid of me," Duncan said. "Think about it only two life-forms
left from all of the creepy crawlies that once prowled Earth. It wouldn't be moral, wouldn't be
right."
Goose bumps rose on Tate's arm. This was the exact thought she'd been avoiding.
Charlie said.
Yago said,
life-forms. The way I see it, there are still four life-forms left five if you want to count
Charlie.>>
Amelia snapped.
him.>>
"Get rid of me and you'll be all alone," Duncan said oilily.
That snapped Tate out of it. Duncan had suddenly reminded her of a salesman who pushed
too hard. Besides, she had more than enough company. She didn't need Duncan. Duncan was
the last thing she needed.
"You know, I'm sorry we never got to know each other better," Duncan said.
Now he was starting to nauseate her.
"Can you block communication from within the barrier?" Tate asked Daughter.
"Yes," Daughter said.
"Do it," Tate said crisply. "Please."
"I know we could ha " Duncan's voice was cut off in the middle of a word.
Yago filled in,
you'd be justified killing him just for his annoying lack of originality.>>
"I want you to change the atmosphere within the barrier," Tate carefully told Daughter.
"Within the isolated area only not in the ship as a whole change the atmosphere to one
hundred percent ozone. Leave the atmosphere in the rest of the ship alone."
"Change completed," Daughter said.
Tate took in a cautious breath through her nose. She could still breathe. Okay, that was good
news at least.
Slowly, Tate looked up.
Duncan was still there. He'd stretched himself out as far as the barrier would allow. He was
now a thin oval pool trapped in an invisible cage. He was clearly losing his sheen now. He
resembled old putty. Did that mean he was sick?
Tate cracked her jaw nervously, trying to ignore the regret ballooning up in her chest.
Duncan was a monster. But who was she to judge? She was a murderer. The worst Duncan
had done was kidnap Mother. She had turned into an enormous Mouth and swallowed her
victims whole like some sort of human python.
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Amelia said.
Charlie said.
They sounded gleeful.
Tate felt only guilt. And relief. And fear. The game wasn't over yet.
"Daughter," Tate said cautiously. "Increase the atmospheric pressure within the barrier to
um, a hundred times whatever it is now."
"Atmospheric pressure increased," Daughter said.
As Tate watched as they all watched through Tate's eyes a small Duncan-chunk
shattered off the rest, leaving behind a jagged edge. For a beat, Duncan looked like a mirror
with a chip taken out of one side. Then, with violent speed, the cracks spread out from the
chipped edge. Duncan hung there for a breathless moment, a billion pieces suspended. Then
The pieces began to fall.
"Agghhh!" Tate slid off the chair and cowered beneath it.
A billion Duncan-shards silently bounced off the invisible barrier above her head. The
barrier held. It was a strange sight like looking up at a pile of dull jewels.
"I wonder if he said anything before dying," Tate whispered. "We wouldn't have been able to
hear him."
about this life-form.>>
Charlie asked fearfully.
Amelia suggested.
that can live in the vacuum of space.>>
Tate drew her eyes away from the sight of the broken Duncan. She half-expected to see him
reforming, the shattered pieces merging. She couldn't let herself believe the danger was past.
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| Cytat |
Dobre pomysły nie mają przeszłości, mają tylko przyszłość. Robert Mallet
De minimis - o najmniejszych rzeczach.
Dobroć jest ważniejsza niż mądrość, a uznanie tej prawdy to pierwszy krok do mądrości. Theodore Isaac Rubin
Dobro to tylko to, co szlachetne, zło to tylko to, co haniebne.
Dla człowieka nie tylko świat otaczający jest zagadką; jest on nią sam dla siebie. I z obu tajemnic bardziej dręczącą wydaje się ta druga. Antoni Kępiński (1918-1972)
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