Edges (Linda Nagata) читать бесплатно онлайн полную версию книги

THIRTEENTH

My people, you think bitterly as the extreme heat of the firestorm begins to snap the molecular bonds that constitute your mind.

You might have annihilated them at first contact, but you chose not to because you admired them, you allowed yourself to be entranced by their cleverness, their bravery. You put your own future at risk for the chance of making them part of your world and now they have betrayed you.

Clever and brave, indeed.

Their assault is primitive, brutal, potentially suicidal—and effective. The crushing heat and the concussions both threaten your physical integrity. You must escape.

You will escape.

You prepared for this contingency. The mechanism exists. An alternate path forward. Less desirable, but in the fullness of time, you will recover.