"Busby, F M - Demu 01-03 - The Demu Trilogy UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Busby F M)

"Legend, folklore, from other peoples made victims.
They take you, they use you as domestic animal; maybe
eat you."

"Seems like a long haul to the meat market," Barton

said. "Wouldn't it be easier to breed their own stock from
what they get on the first raid?" /

"As I say. Barton: folklore. But the great fear is not
of being killed or even eaten. There is a story so old, .the
race that first told it is extinct. By supernova, long past.
This is, the goal of the Demu is to make animals into peo-
ple."

"I don't get you."

"If I have it, they catch people to try to turn them into
Demu."

"Oh, come off it. Doc! How could that be?"
"I don't know; Limila doesn't know. But it is said on
many worlds."

"So*s a lot of other horse-puckie, I imagine.** The sub-
ject had no handle he could grasp. He began stretching
and bending, working the aches out of his muscles. Doktor
Siewen shrugged and said nothing more.

Limila was back. She started to say something, but an
excited babble broke out across the room and cut her off
in midsentence. Barton wheeled to see what was going on.

The walls were leaking. At intervals, small jets of liquid
spurted at a height of about five feet. Barton realized he
was deadly thirsty. He wasn't alone; there was a rush.
Barton held back for a moment but decided that if the
Demu wanted to poison them, the air supply would be
simpler.

The water was cool with a slight mineral taste, not un-
pleasant. Then it changed; the liquid became thicker and
milk-colored. Just like Instant Breakfast, Barton thought,
except not sweetened. He found he was hungry, too.

The stuff stopped coming before he'd had enough of it,
but he could feel relief from the low blood-sugar condition
he hadn't consciously noticed. Barton felt a little more as
if he might have some sort of chance in this game after
all. He realized it was silly to feel that way from a mere