"Daniel F. Galouye - Dark Universe" - читать интересную книгу автора (Galouye Daniel F)

"A Zivver."
"You're just getting the scent from that raiding party."
But Jared edged forward, weighing the auditory impressions, sniffing out
other clues. The scent of the Zivver was unmistakable, but it was of minor
proportions--that of a child! He drew in another whiff and detained it in his
nasal chamber.
A girl Zivver!
Her heartbeat was distinct as he clicked his pebbles once to sound out
the details of the cleft in which she was hiding. She stiffened at the noise,
but didn't try to escape. Instead, she started crying--plaintively.
Owen relaxed. "It's only a child!"
"What's the matter?" Jared asked solicitously, but got no reply.
"What are you doing out here?" Owen tried.
"We're not going to hurt you," Jared promised. "What's wrong?"
"I--I can't ziv," she finally managed between sobs.
Jared knelt beside her. "You're a Zivver, aren't you?"
"Yes. I mean--no, I'm not. That is--"
She was perhaps thirteen gestations old. No older, certainly.
He led her out into the passageway. "Now--what's your name?"
"Estel."
"And why are you hiding out here, Estel?"
"I heard Mogan and the others coming. I ran in here so they wouldn't ziv
me."
"Why don't you want them to find you?"
"So they won't take me back to the Zivver World."
"But that's where you belong, isn't it?"
She sniffled and Jared heard her wiping her cheeks dry.
"No," she said despondently. "Everybody there can ziv except me. And
when I'm ready to become a Survivoress there won't be any Zivver Survivors
who'll want me."
 She began sobbing again. "I want to go to your world."
"You can't, Estel," Owen tried to explain. "You don't understand what
the sentiment is against--I mean--oh, you tell her, Jared."
Jared brushed the hair off her face when the reflection of his voice
told him it was hanging there. "Once in the Lower Level we had a little
girl--just about your age. She was sad because she couldn't hear. She wanted
to run away. Then, one period, all of a sudden she could hear! And she was
glad she had been smart enough not to run away and get lost before then."
"She was a Different One, wasn't she?" the girl asked.
"No. That's just the point. We only _thought_ she was Different. And if
she'd run away we never would have found out she wasn't."
Estel was silent as Jared led her toward the Main Passage.
"You mean," she asked after a while, "you think _I_ might start
_zivving?_"
He laughed and halted in the larger corridor beside a gurgling hot
spring that sent its moist warmth swirling all around them. "I'm sure you'll
start zivving--when you least expect it. And you'll be just as happy as that
other little girl."
He listened in the direction of the Zivver raiders and readily picked up
the sound of their receding voices. "What do you say, Estel--want to go home?"