"Gordon R. Dickson & Harry Harrision - Lifeship" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

privations if they understood.

"All right. Listen, then, all of you," he said, speaking to them all. "The
Albenareth think of space as if it were heaven. To them, the planets and all
inhabited solid bodies are the abode of the Imperfect. An Albenareth gains
Perfection by going into space. The more trips and the more time spent away
from planetfall, the more Perfection gained. You noticed the Captain
identified himself as *Rayumung' and the Engineer as 'Munghanf.' Those aren't
names. They're ranks, like stair-steps on the climb to a status of
Perfection. They've got nothing to do with the individual's duties aboard a
space vessel, except that the more responsible duties go to those of higher
rank, generally."

"But what do the ranks mean, then?" It was Mara again. Giles gave her a brief
smile.
"The ranks stand for the number of trips they've made into space, and the
time spent in space. There's more to it than that. The rougher the duty they
pull, the greater the count of the time involved toward a higher rank. For
example, this lifeship duty is going to gain a lot of points for this Captain
and EngineerтАФnot because they're saving our lives, though, but because to
save us they had to pass up the chance to die in the spaceliner when it
burned. You see, the last and greatest goal of a spacegoing Albenareth is to
die, finally, in space."

"Then they won't care!" It was an abrupt cry, almost a wail, from someone
else in the crowd, a dark-haired arbite girl as young as Mara, but without
the marks of character on her face. "If anything goes wrong they'll just let
us die, so they can die!"

"Certainly not!" said Giles sharply. "Get that idea out of your heads right
now. Death is the greatest achievement possible to an Albenareth, but only
after one of them has done his best to fulfill his duties in space for as
many years as possible. It's only when there's no place else to turn that the
Albenareth let death take them."

"But what if these two decide suddenly there's no place to turn, or something
like that? They'll just go and dieтАФ" "Stop that sort of talk!" snapped Giles.
Suddenly he was tired of explaining, ashamed and disgusted for them allтАФfor
their immediate complaints, their open and unashamed display of fears, their
lack of decent self-restraint and self-control, and their pasty faces which
had obviously spent most of their lives indoors away from the sunlight. All
that was lower-class about them rose in his throat to choke him.

"Be quiet, all of you," he said. "Get busy now and pick out the cot you want,
beside whoever you want for a neighbor while we're in this lifeship. The one
you pick is the one you'll have to stick with for the rest of the time we're
aboard. I'm not going to have arguments and fights over changing places.
After I've looked the lifeship over I'll get your names and tell you how
you're to act until we reach planetfall. Now, get busyi"