JК
Ribofunk :: Филиппо Пол Ди
Страница: 116 из 156Here ended up all the failed experiments of amateur fabricators and malicious chromosartors, all of
society's self-malformed dropouts, all escaped splices and faulty silicrobe colonies, as well as some seemingly autocatalyric creatures no one outside the Soft Sector had ever encountered.
There were no conventional physical barriers such as fences or minefields to keep the inhabitants of the Soft Sector penned up.
Instead, the periphery was patrolled by Macro2phages.
Coney saw one now.
The towering gelatinous mass was easily as big as a baseline elephant. The megamicro humped itself along, leaving a wet trail of lysing exudate, intent on ingesting and devouring any living organism that tried to escape. Not far behind it trailed another, and another behind that one.
Coney's knees felt as weak as boiled water. He knew that the guardians were programmed not to bother anyone entering the Soft Sector. But how was he to escape on the far side, assuming he survived his transit?
For a moment, Coney actually considered abandoning his suicidal mission. Then he recalled his dietary leash and the locked collar around his neck which would be quite capable of delivering a killing GloPos-beamed signal anywhere he hid…
Setting a trembling foot onto the road surface, Coney eyed the traffic. At the right moment, he darted across, incurring only one shouted warning from an angry Mercedes.
Safely reaching the marge of the Soft Sector, Coney was briefly startled when his pedlumos left him, fleeing obediently back to the civicorp proper.
In the next second, he was treated to a broadcast courtesy of silicrobes embedded in the pavement that erupted at his presence.
"Attention! You are almost within the Soft Sector! Be advised that under relevant civicorp statutes, you are permanently forfeiting all of a citizen's rights and privileges by so entering. Any transgenics spotted within the Soft Sector by aerial patrols will be assumed to be deranged and will be subject to immediate lethal Factory Recall. Attention-!"
Coney closed his eyes and ran.
The Macro2phages made a slurping, sluffing noise as they crawled their circuit. They smelled of yeast and baseline human sperm. In his blind dash, Coney brushed the tacky leading edge of one.
The lysing agent burned through his fur, etching his skin with a tracery of pain and urging him to greater speed.
And then he was past it, safely inside the Soft Sector!
Panting, crouching in the shadows beneath a bush, Coney watched the monster move on.
society's self-malformed dropouts, all escaped splices and faulty silicrobe colonies, as well as some seemingly autocatalyric creatures no one outside the Soft Sector had ever encountered.
There were no conventional physical barriers such as fences or minefields to keep the inhabitants of the Soft Sector penned up.
Instead, the periphery was patrolled by Macro2phages.
Coney saw one now.
The towering gelatinous mass was easily as big as a baseline elephant. The megamicro humped itself along, leaving a wet trail of lysing exudate, intent on ingesting and devouring any living organism that tried to escape. Not far behind it trailed another, and another behind that one.
Coney's knees felt as weak as boiled water. He knew that the guardians were programmed not to bother anyone entering the Soft Sector. But how was he to escape on the far side, assuming he survived his transit?
For a moment, Coney actually considered abandoning his suicidal mission. Then he recalled his dietary leash and the locked collar around his neck which would be quite capable of delivering a killing GloPos-beamed signal anywhere he hid…
Setting a trembling foot onto the road surface, Coney eyed the traffic. At the right moment, he darted across, incurring only one shouted warning from an angry Mercedes.
Safely reaching the marge of the Soft Sector, Coney was briefly startled when his pedlumos left him, fleeing obediently back to the civicorp proper.
In the next second, he was treated to a broadcast courtesy of silicrobes embedded in the pavement that erupted at his presence.
"Attention! You are almost within the Soft Sector! Be advised that under relevant civicorp statutes, you are permanently forfeiting all of a citizen's rights and privileges by so entering. Any transgenics spotted within the Soft Sector by aerial patrols will be assumed to be deranged and will be subject to immediate lethal Factory Recall. Attention-!"
Coney closed his eyes and ran.
The Macro2phages made a slurping, sluffing noise as they crawled their circuit. They smelled of yeast and baseline human sperm. In his blind dash, Coney brushed the tacky leading edge of one.
The lysing agent burned through his fur, etching his skin with a tracery of pain and urging him to greater speed.
And then he was past it, safely inside the Soft Sector!
Panting, crouching in the shadows beneath a bush, Coney watched the monster move on.