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only thousands of degrees hot; from here, the neutrino-image of the distant
core blazed like a welding arc in the midst of a billowing sunset.
As they approached, flanked by two patrol vessels, they discovered that
the silver sphere was not itself the station; it was a great reflective
bubble, an n-space forcefield blocking the heat and radiation of the sun. In
concert with the station s n-space generators, they warped
Enigma through the bubble with scarcely a tremor only to find themselves
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approaching a second and smaller bubble, floating in the golden watery glow of
the light that had gotten through the first one. They warped through that
second screen as well; and again through the third and final
envelope of n-space.
The station proper floated before them now: an insect hive, a dark fortress
against a hazy amber glow.
Ruskin stared at it, instinctively reached out toward it, as though
he could walk toward it if only he weren t trapped in the amber
himself. He stared at it for a long time before whispering to the
console, Take us in to dock, please.
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Chapter 25
The ship glided into one of the docking nooks that pockmarked the outside of
the station.
As it bumped to a stop, the dock structure wrapped itself around the ship,
bonding to the hull like a second skin. The hatches opened and security robots
glided aboard.
The search was thorough. Ruskin and the others waited on the bridge
while the robots scanned and probed, not just the ship s holds, but the
control console as well. It was an hour before they were allowed to leave
the ship.
Once inside the station, they were met by human security officers,
who took Max and
Tamika to a separate room. Ruskin was the only one with clearance; his friends
would have to wait until he found someone to authorize their presence. Ruskin
followed an agent into a small office, where he was fitted with a
gold-and-iridescent security bracelet and informed that he would be
taken at once to see someone named Dr. Sharaane. She ll be glad to
see you, Dr.
Ruskin. They ve all been pretty frantic, wondering if you would make
it here in time, the officer said.
Ruskin followed him out. The name had set a bell ringing in his
mind, but he couldn t place it.
Dr. Sharaane &
If the station on the outside had looked like a malformed hornet s nest, on
the inside it was a blown-glass citadel. The corridors were clear-walled
and asymmetrical; it was like walking through a hollow latticework of
crystal fibers. One could glimpse a variety of offices and labs, but there was
a shimmering unreality about them; none of the rooms seemed to be quite there
, except when they actually passed an open doorway and could glimpse
people inside. Ruskin imagined that he was walking through a glass
Klein bottle, the topology of which passed through a five- or
six-dimensional space-time. He wondered if there was an n-space generator at
work somewhere in the station, twisting the architecture out of normal
space-time. It wasn t exactly K-space: just a slight displacement out of the
continuum, he thought.
It was hardly standard architectural design; the power consumption had to
be enormous.
Of course there was no shortage of power here, if they could tap even a
fraction of the energy flux outside the station s shielding. But why do it?
Dr. Sharaane
. His mind fairly vibrated with memories just out of reach. There
was something here that would not let him go. He felt as though he
were caught by a moving dragline, pulling him underwater into an airless
abyss. He drew a breath and hurried to keep up with the officer.
Dr. Sharaane
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The corridor appeared to dip, and beneath his feet he glimpsed a room filled
with scientific holos. Before he could ask about it, his escort led
him around a curve and it rippled out of sight. A moment later,
they were in a wide, translucent-walled foyer. Until now, they had
passed very few people; but here people were moving about, and they mostly
looked young, harried, and businesslike. A tall, green-eyed man waved and
called, Good to see you, Willard!
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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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