"Babylon 5 - The Nautilus Coil - J Gregory Keyes (txt)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Babylon 5)

pushed. The creatures they brought here were just germ plasma to them. They
made them telepaths, yes, at the expense of every other trait. These poor
creatures, I believe, had telepathic powers that couldn't be rated even by
the Vorlons, but not one of them could have figured out how to build a fire
or to put the round peg in the round hole."

"Lyta was pale, studying the skeletons. "That's horrible," she said. "What
happened to them?"

Vacit waved his hands, and lights went off. The skeletons vanished in
darkness. "The Vorlons killed them, of course, so they wouldn't fall into the
hands of the Shadows. They had already gotten what they wanted -- the genes
to implant in other races, to create beings that were both telepathic {/and/}
intelligent. You see what I'm saying? Those two traits had to come
{/separately/}, then be combined. An intelligent race can develop naturally,
a telepathic beast can develop naturally. But you can't have both together
without intervention."

"You still haven't told us why you came," Garibaldi noticed. "Or how you
knew about this place."

Vacit smiled again, his thin, skull-like grin. It did not seem to reflect
good humor.

"I knew the Shadows were coming, and I knew we telepaths were going to be
needed. I made Psi Corps what it was to meet that need. I had nearly reached
the end of my life, and everyone I had ever cared for was gone. My enemies in
the government and the corps were legion, and I understood that in time they
would catch me alone, with my guard down. I felt there was one last thing I
could do. Like you, I came here expecting to find the secret of enhancing our
abilities, and I thought I would make one last discovery for my people. As
you see, I did. But it's all gone. Nothing remains of the Vorlon records or
laboratories, only the bones. I suppose those could be scraped for DNA, but I
suspect all you would find is the same sequence every telepath has."

Garibaldi nodded, sickened. They had once thought the Vorlons were the good
guys. As it turned out, ideas like good and evil were as irrelevant to beings
like the Vorlons and Shadows as they were to the low-life scum he had busted
as security chief.

Something suspicious in Garibaldi had been demanding his attention for
awhile, but he just now saw what it was. "Mr. Vacit, tell me again how you
know we beat the Shadows. You've been isolated here since before the end of
the war, and you had to have been out of touch before that. So how did you
know all of this recent history?"

"He hasn't been entirely forthcoming with you," a new voice said.

They all turned. For an instant, Garibaldi thought it was Bester standing
there, but it wasn't, only some middle-aged Psi Cop he had never seen, in