"Alan Dean Foster - Humanx 5 - Sentenced To Prism" - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

natural
stone or artificial, much less if it's worth anything."
"It's natural." Machoka seemed to be trying to hide his amusement and it
occurred to Evan there might be more to the adornment than first met the eye.
The pres-ident rose, walked over to stand close to Evan, and stuck out his
arm,
palm up. "Here. Take a closer look."
Evan did so, wondering what he was supposed to be looking for. Many facets cut
by a steady hand, he decided. A dark wire appeared to run through the center
of
the crystal with smaller wires branching out from it. Inclu-sions of some
sort,
or at. integrated support matrix added by the jeweler to strengthen the stone.
He said as much to Machoka.
The older man couldn't conceal his pleasure any fur-ther. "No, you're not even
close."
Evan was a little miffed. He had serious work of his own to do, and if the
president of the company wanted someone to play guessing games with, he could
damn well find another candidate.
Machoka sensed his discomfort, adopted a more seri-ous mien. "Touch it." He
gestured with his wrist. "It has a most interesting feel."
Frowning, Evan reached out with his right hand. He received the impression of
something slick and waxy before a sharp sting made him jerk his hand back. The
bracelet twisted slightly before resetting itself on Machoka's wrist. As it
twisted, it separated for an instant. Evan could just make out two small
yellow
imperfections at the point of separation: eyes. Then the head slipped neatly
back into a groove in the tail and the bracelet relaxed once more.
Machoka raised his hand and admired the ornament. "Not much of a charge, but I
imagine it's enough to scare of the majority of predators."
"If it was supposed to be funny, it wasn't." Evan nursed his tingling hand.
Machoka looked down at him. "I was told that you had a terrific sense of
humor‑except when the joke was directed at you." This time Evan wisely
said
nothing. "We're calling it a Spanset. It's an organosilicate life-form."
Evan's curiosity quickly overcame his upset. "Like a diatom?"
"Far more advanced than that."
The Spanset clung to Machoka's wrist without moving, looking exactly like a
chunk of cut citrine. "So it's alive. What do you feed it? I can see right
through it and I don't see anything like a stomach or normal internal organs."
Machoka turned to the transparent wall and held up his arm. The light passed
cleanly through the Spanset's body. "They can be trained to recognize
individuals. It identifies me through my body's electric field. That's what
the
biologists tell me, anyway. Feed it? It's a photovore."
"A what? I mean, I know what that should mean, but I've never heard the term
used before."
Machoka turned back to him and shrugged. "It's the best thing we've been able
to
come up with. It's a light-eater. It lives on sunlight." He ran an