"Eric Brown - Pithecanthropus Blues" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brown Eric)

"Yeah, sen-dep tanks - to flux, to mind-push the bigships through the
nada-continuum... Well, while you were in there on a three month stint, it
wasn't technically you who were mind-pushing the bigship-"
"Then who?"
"You see-" Hincty gestured with spread fingers, "when you tanked yourself,
the ship's computer interfaced with your neo-cortex, accessed your DNA and
brought forward one of your Pithecanthropan ancestors from the Pleistocene
Period to inhabit your head and mind-push the 'boats. Apparently, these
little ape guys were closer to the-" She screwed her face up and peered at
something written on the palm of her hand. "Sorry, Chester - you're my
first patient, see. They were closer to the Essential Elemental Quiddity
of the Primal Cosmic Null-state of the Nada-Continuum..." She squinted at
me. "That make any sense to you, Chester?"
"I think I get the gist," I answered. "Pithecanthropus man can mind-push
bigships better than us humans."
"Yeah." Hincty shrugged. "Guess that's what it boils down to. So for the
three months you were tanked, you inhabited some basement of your
subconscious while this apeman did the work. Now... in quite a large
percentage of Enginemen, something went wrong on a cellular level. Many of
you underwent terminal Ancestral Persona Exchange."
"So that's why six months ago all the human Enginemen were made redundant
and the boosted-animals got the jobs?"
"That's why, Chester." She looked relieved that she'd managed to get to
the end of the explanation.
"You said I was your first patient?" I asked. "Just what kind of therapy
can you give me that might help my condition?"
She glanced around the bar, wrinkled her nose at the music. "Not here,
Chester. How would you like to come back to my place?"
Before I had time to reply she pulled me from the Carotid Fix and along
the perimeter walkway. She owned an expensive cluster of bubble rooms
barnacled to the inner curve of the dome. She took me by the hand and led
me through to the bedroom. She opaqued the walls for privacy, stepped from
her wrap and put her arms around my neck. "I can be any race or colour you
like," she breathed into my ear as she lowered me to the bed. "Just speak
your instructions into my occipital microphone."
I felt like asking her if she could transform herself into a
Pithecanthropan - after all, I'd have to get used to it. But, somehow, the
thought did not appeal. I'd have the rest of my life to sample the dubious
pleasures of proto-human love-making.
"So this is the Line's idea of therapy," I said. "A sop? A few hours of
ecstasy to compensate for a life-time of hell..."
Hincty Little-O'fay was unzipping my overalls. "Not at all, silly. You
see, I can cure you, Chester."
"Huh? You can?"
She whispered how.
Three hours later, as Hincty slumbered gently beside me, I felt the first
twinges of the transfer in my head. I rolled from the bed, dressed quietly
and left.
I was going APE for the very last time.