"Blish, James - To Pay the Piper" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blish James)

operating table came through, guided by two attendants. There
was a form on it, covered to the chin with a sheet. The face
above this sheet was immobile and almost as white.
Hamelin watched the table go out of the huge cavern with
visibly mixed emotions. He said: "This processit's painful?"
"No, not exactly," Carson said. The motive behind the
question interested him hugely, but he didn't dare show it.
"But any fooling around with the immunity mechanisms can
give rise to symptomsfever, general malaise, and so on.
We try to protect our subjects by giving them a light shock
anesthesia first."
"Shock?" Hamelin repeated. "You mean electroshock? I
don't see how"
"Call it stress anesthesia instead. We give the man a
steroid drug that counterfeits the anesthesia the body itself
produces in moments of great stresson the battlefield, say,
or just after a serious injury. It's fast, and free of aftereffects.
There's no secret about that, by the way; the drug involved is
21-hydroxypregnane-3,20-dione sodium succinate, and it dates
all the way back to 1955."
"Oh," the Under Secretary said. The ringing sound of the
chemical name had had, as Carson had hoped, a ritually
soothing effect.
"Gentlemen," Hamelin said hesitantly. "Gentlemen, I have
aa rather unusual request. And, I am afraid, a rather sel-
fish one." A brief, nervous laugh. "Selfish in both senses, if
you will pardon me the pun. You need feel no hesitation in
refusing me, but"
Abruptly he appeared to find it impossible to go on. Carson
mentally crossed his fingers and plunged in.
"You would like to undergo the process yourself?" he said.
"Well, yes. Yes, that's exactly it. Does that seem in-
consistent? I should know, should I not, what it is that I'm
advocating for my following? Know it intimately, from
personal experience, not just theory? Of course I realize that
it would conflict with your policy, but I assure you I wouldn't
turn it to any political advantagenone whatsoever. And
perhaps it wouldn't be too great a lapse of policy to process
just one civilian among your seven thousand soldiers."
Subverted, by God! Carson looked at Mudgett with a
firmly straight face. It wouldn't do accept too quickly.
But Hamelin was rushing on, almost chattering now. "I
can understand your hesitation. You must feel that I'm trying
to gain some advantage, or even to get to the surface ahead
of my fellow men. If it will set your minds at rest, I would
be glad to enlist in your advance army.'Before five years are
up, I could surely learn some technical skill which would
make me useful to the expedition. If you would prepare
papers to that effect, I'd be happy to sign them."
"That's hardly necessary," Mudgett said. "After you're Re-