"Follett, James - Earthsearch 00 - Mindwarp" - читать интересную книгу автора (Follett James)

where Tarlan had kicked him.
Kally thrust her youngest offspring into a moulded chair
and threatened that she'd send for the technicians if he
didn't behave. It was a threat she hated using. Not only
because of its seriousness, but because of its echoes of a
miserable childhood with a brutish, overbearing father.
`You do as I say, my girl or I'll send for the technicians
to throw you to the outdoors where the Diablons will get you
and eat you!'
Well she never went that far. She had never frightened her
children with talk of the eternal damnation of the outdoors
and the Diablons.
`Hardly any technicians in our sector. Takes ages for
anything broke to get mended,' said Tarlan belligerently. But
the look of anger in his mother's dark eyes stilled further
aggression. He scowled sulkily at Ewen. It was always Ewen
who got all the attention. Ewen this, Ewen that. Ewen had
been given a toy hot air balloon for his birthday that he
wouldn't let anyone else play with. They were even here
because of Ewen. He hated his older brother and wanted to
kill him.
A voice boomed around the hall. `Blue badges! All blue
badges, forward please!'
It was an announcement that struck a sudden chord with
Kally; she remembered it from her selection day in this very
hall.
Some fifty children, all about Ewen's age, left their
parents and surged towards the uniformed ushers who sorted
them into groups and led them through light polarizing doors.
Kally glanced anxiously at the round badge that an usher
had attached to Ewen when they had first arrived. Its colour
had changed from bright red to dull pink.
`My turn in about five minutes,' Ewen commented.
Kally looked sharply at her eldest. `How do you know?'
`They number the groups.' Ewen pointed to a display panel
that hung down from the hall's vaulted roof. `A three and a
five.'
Kally looked up at the display that consisted of two
glowing boxes. There were three dots in the first box and
five dots in the second box. She understood the individual
numbers that the dots represented but not their collective
value. Like everyone in Arama, the highest number she could
visualise was nine which she accomplished by picturing three
rows of three dots. Over that number was a struggle. Not
because of any lack of mental ability, but because her
culture only dealt in numbers whereby each unit could be
focussed on. Few people can concentrate on more than ten.
Larger numbers were simply expressed as a row of dots or
bars. For the people of Arama, the passing of the weeks was
marked by every tenth day, a day that was set aside as a day