"Joe Haldeman - A Tangled Web" - читать интересную книгу автора (Haldeman Joe)

тАФI die. I breathe in and breathe in and cannot exhale. I explode all over my friends. They
forget my name and pretend it is dung. They wash off in the square and the well becomes
polluted. All die. O the embarrassment.
тАФHe said not to tell me?
тАФThat's right.
тАФDid you agree to sell him the land?
тАФThat is a difficult question to answer.
тАФLet me rephrase the question: is it possible that you might sell the land to my tribe?
тАФIt is possible, if you offer better terms. But only possible, in any case.
тАФThis is embarrassing. I, uh, die and, um, the last breath from my lungs is a terrible acid.
It melts the seaward wall of the city and a hurricane comes and washes it away. All die.O the
embarrassment.
тАФYou're much better at that than he was.
тАФThank you. But may I ask you to amplify as to the possibility?
тАФCertainly. Land is not a fish or an elevator. Land is something that keeps you from
falling all the way down. It gives the sea a shore and makes the air stop. Do you understand?
тАФSo far. Please continue.
тАФLand is time, but not in a mercantile sense. I can say "In return for the time it takes me
to decide which one of you is the guilty party, you must give me such-and-so." But how can
I say "In return for the land I am standing on you must give me this-and-that"? Nobody can
step off the time, you see, but I can step off the land, and then what is it? Does it even exist?
In a mercantile sense? These questions and corollaries to them have been occupying some of
our finest minds ever since your courier came long ago.
тАФMay I make a suggestion?
тАФPlease do. Anything might help.
тАФWhy not just sell it to the tribe that offers the most?
тАФNo, you don't see. Forgive me, you Terrans are very simpleminded people, for all your
marvelous Otis elevators and starships (this does not embarrass me to say because it is meant
to help you understand yourself; if you were !tang you would have to pay for it). You see,
there are three mercantile classes. Things and services may be of no worth, of measurable
worth, or of infinite worth. Land has never been classified before, and it may belong in any
of the categories.
тАФBut Uncle! The Lafitte and I have offered to buy the land. Surely that eliminates the
first class.
тАФO you poor Terran. I would hate to see you try to buy a fish. You must think of all the
implications.
тАФI die. I, uh, have a terrible fever in my head and it gets hotter and hotter until my head is
a fire, a forge, a star. I set the world on fire and everybody dies. O the embarrassment. What
implications?
тАФHere is the simplest. If the land has finite value, when at best all it does is keep things
from falling all the way down, how much is air worth? Air is necessary for life, and it makes
fires burn. If you pay for land do you think we should let you have air for free?
тАФAn interesting point, I said, thinking fast and !tangly. тАФBut you have answered it
yourself. Since air is necessary for life, it is of infinite value, and not even one breath can be
paid for with all the riches of the universe.
тАФO poor one, how can you have gotten through life without losing your feet? Air would
be of infinite worth thus only if life were of infinite worth, and even so little as I know of
your rich and glorious history proves conclusively that you place very little value on life.
Other people's lives, at any rate. Sad to say, our own history contains a similarly bonehungry
period.