"Alan Dean Foster - Damned 1 - Call to Arms" - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

calcified innards around with them to the end of time. Still, they were accepted as equals within the
Purpose, even if the biologists did tend to regard them as evolutionary freaks. They were to be admired,
thought One-who-Decides, for having developed intelligence in spite of such a handicap. That was the
true beauty of the Purpose, that it excluded no one. An Ashregan could stand side by side with a Molitar,
while an Amplitur mediated between them.

That was what really mattered, the Commander knew. The meeting of minds, the unity of understanding
and Purpose. That was what bound together such a diverse assemblage of peoples. Not insignificances
like physical differentiation. The work ahead filled One-who-Decides with trepidation as worst-case
scenarios were anticipated. Nevertheless, it would be pursued with vigor and dedication in the
knowledge that the end result would be an important expansion of the Purpose and the greater mystery
for which it stood.

Just because they were fighting the Sspari did not mean the commander had to like it, even though it was
the work for which it had been trained. Fighting was a disagreeable business, smelling strongly of
uncivilization, as did the need to maintain enormous stocks of war material and the fleets to transport it.
One could not even take joy in victory, since achieving it would require the death of large numbers of the
enemyтАж all intelligent minds lost to the Purpose. The only satisfaction lay in knowing that the surviving
Sspari would be fully integrated into the delights of the Purpose. And because those Sspari who would
perish would never know that pleasure, One-who-Decides regretted their forthcoming deaths even more
than those that might occur among its own kind.

There seemed no other way. All avenues of persuasion had been tried. Though a diminutive and
physically unimposing race, the Sspari were possessed of a stubbornness and inability to see reason out
of all proportion to their size. All of which meant nothing, One-who-Decides knew. It was intelligence
which mattered. That the Sspari had, though not to any great or remarkable degree. Enough, however, to
warrant their inclusion in the Purpose, as soon as they could be taught not to resist their own destiny.

Even the traditional show of force had failed to convince, serving only to warn them of what was to
come and allowing them time to prepare. The Amplitur knew that might be the result, but they tried it
anyway. The peoples of the Purpose did not attack without first trying persuasion. They were integrators,
not conquerors.

Next had come the traditional attempt at subverting the government, through innuendo and bribery
carried out by allies who physically resembled the Sspari. The morality of such methods was often
questioned, but the Amplitur would do anything to avoid war, that obscene offense against reason.
Unfortunately, the government of the Sspari had not fallen. The resultant conflict had raged for years, with
the Sspari occasionally making advances. Though they fought with a tenacity which was as determined as
it was foolish, the over-whelming strength and diversity of the Peoples was slowly pushing them back to
their homeworld. When the Amplitur gained ground, they rarely surrendered it back no matter what the
cost, while the Sspari could be induced to make orderly retreats.

How could they stand against the peoples, who fought from a position of moral as well as physical and
intellectual strength? Racial or planetary sovereignty counted for nothing when ranged against the
Purpose. Furthermore, the Amplitur possessed the patience of the ages, and the confidence that victory
was inevitable. The only variable was time.

One-who-Decides did not understand how the Sspari could fail to see this. Could they not see that full
integration was inevitable? That was the destiny of all intelligences, save those two whose extermination
had been regretfully required. That would not happen to the Sspari, the Commander vowed. And when