"David Freer - The Forlorn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Freer Dave)

they bred. The culls went back into the food supply for the others. The remaining thirty percent were
almost all perfect Morkth-men. Almost all . . . but there were always a few exceptions. Adaptation to
survive could always be pushed one step further. A few of the humans the Morkth bred had learned not
only to survive, but to exploit the system. S'kith 235 was one of those. He was a great danger to the
entire hive system. Not only had he learned to exploit it, but also he still had his balls.

The Alpha-Morkth wanted uniformity, absolute obedience, and antlike industry from the humans they
bred to replace workers and, reluctantly, warriors of their own species. The warriors were a problem. A
good fighter needs a certain amount of flexibility in their response to an enemy. A degree of tactical
adaptability is also needed. A soldier may also have to be deployed at a variety of tasks, given the
chaotic nature of war. The sheer stupidity bred for in workers was thus unsuitable, but with too much
intelligence and flexibility the warrior Morkth-men could be dangerous to their creators. The cull rate here
was over ninety percent, and the resultant warrior-breds were still somewhat less effective than
wild-human fighters. The selection bias toward strongly left-brain-dominant warriors failed to adequately
deal with the erratic nature of hand-to-hand combat. It was the main reason for the hive cities' lack of
speed in their advance against the internecinally squabbling city-states.

In the lower levels of the hive were the small lightless cells where the Alpha-Morkth kept their
brood-sow humans. It was a place where no male Morkth-man should ever be found. Even the cleaners
down here were microcephalic hormonally-altered male neuters. S'kith 235 moved calmly along behind
one as it mopped the passage. It would almost certainly not turn around, or react, no matter what noise
he made, but S'kith never took chances. His curiosity was almost equally matched by a secretive caution.
The mopper moved around the corner. Experience told him that it would be at least twenty-five minutes
before it came back.

The grille on the bottom of the cell door was intended to allow any solid matter to be washed out after
its daily hosing down. The floor within was curved and sloped towards the door to ensure that the system
worked efficiently. Even the food and water dispensers were positioned on the back wall, to assist
gravity. S'kith knelt down beside the grille, and spoke, his voice very low. There could be no mistake
about the eagerness of the whispered reply.

Copulation through a six-inch-wide by five-inch-high steel-barred grille is not easy. It can be done,
however, if both participants are very determined. The warrior class are bred for physical strength, agility
and speed. They are fed on a well-balanced dietтАФthe protein often coming from the most biologically
suitable source: their own speciesтАФand are renowned for their stamina. Thus it was that the human
cuckoo was able to beat the Alpha-Morkth artificial insemination team five times. Then the sound of the
mop bucket being pushed forced him to withdraw and retreat hastily up the passage and onto the internal
beam structure which he railed along to reach the next level of the hive. He had another fifteen levels to
go before he reached the place where he was supposed to be on guard.
***

Morkth drone males are nonintelligent. In fact, the brain is reduced to pinhead size. The body, too, is a
stunted thing with few functional internal organs. Before maturity they could not survive for an hour
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outside the caring nurture of the hive. Even their food has to be carefully predigested for their growth
period. On maturity the mouth parts meld and change, forming a long tube with vicious extrudable hooks