Marrow

Начало книги

…a sleep, sweet as Death… time traversed, and an incalculable distance… and then a splash of light emerged from the dark and the cold, its warming touch slowly explaining itself to me, showing suns and little worlds and great swirls of colored gas and angry, roaring dust.

A barred spiral galaxy, this was.

Possessing such beauty, and a majesty, that I could not help but stare. And wrapped within that majesty, a frailty, ignorant and vast.

The galaxy’s path and mine were plain. Without question, we would collide.

My gaze was sure to be returned by many more gazes. I knew that, just as I had known that this day was inevitable. Yet when I saw that tiny first machine racing toward me, I was surprised. So soon! And yes, the machine could see me. I watched its mirrored eyes focus on my scarred old face. I watched it fire tiny rockets, exhausting itself in order to pass nearer to me. Then it spat out a minuscule device whose only duty was to collide with my face, undoubtedly followed by a trail of data and new questions. At nearly half the speed of light, we met. Only I survived. Then the mother machine swept past, turning its eyes, watching my trailing face, a part of me imagining its wondrous surprise.

Читать дальше →