"Joe Haldeman - We Were Very Happy" - читать интересную книгу автора (Haldeman Joe)

We Were Very Happy [Analog Nov 73]
Joe Haldeman
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Scared? Oh yes, I was scaredтАФand who wouldnтАЩt be? Only a fool or a suicide or a robot. Or a line
officer.

Submajor Stott paced back and forth behind the small podium in the assembly-room/chop-hall/
gymnasium of the Anniversary. WeтАЩd just made our final collapsar jump, from Tet-Thirty-eight to
YodтАЩFour. We were decelerating at one and a half gravities and our velocity relative to that collapsar
was a respectable nine-tenths c. We were being chased.

тАЬI wish you people would relax for a while and just trust the shipтАЩs computer. The Tauran vessel at any
rate will not be within strike range for another two weeks and if you keep moping around for two weeks
neither you nor your men will be in any condition to fight when the time comes. Fear is a contagious
disease. Mandella!тАЭ

He was always careful to call me тАЬSergeantтАЭ Mandella in front of the company. But everybody at this
briefing was a squad leader or more; not a private in the bunch. So he dropped the honorifics. тАЬYes,

тАЬMandella, you are responsible for the psychological as well as the physical efficiency of the men and
women in your squad. Assuming that you are aware of the morale problem building aboard this vessel
and assuming that your squad is not immuneтАж what have you done about it?тАЭ

тАЬWith my squad, sir?тАЭ

He looked at me for a long moment. тАЬOf course.тАЭ

тАЬWe talk it out, sir.тАЭ

тАЬAnd have you arrived at any dramatic conclusion?тАЭ

тАЬMeaning no disrespect, sir, I think the major problem is obvious. My people have been cooped up in
this ship, hell, everybody has, for fourteen-тАЭ

тАЬRidiculous. Every one of us has been adequately conditioned -against the pressures of, living in close
quarters and the enlisted men have the privilege of confraternity.тАЭ That was a delicate way of putting it.
тАЬOfficers must remain celibate yet we have no morale problem.тАЭ

If he thought his officers were celibate, he should sit down and have a long talk with Lieutenant Harmony.
Maybe he just meant line officers, though: himself and Cortez. Fifty-percent right, probably. Cortez was
rather friendly with Corporal Kamehameha.

тАЬThe therapists reinforced your conditioning in this regard,тАЭ he continued, тАЬwhile they were working to
erase the hate-conditioningтАФ everybody knows how I feel about thatтАФand they may be misguided but
they are skilled.тАЭ

In our first battle with the Tauran's, we had been so saturated with blind hatred that weтАЩd massacred
every last one of them, even though the object of the raid had been to take prisoners. Stott had stayed on
the ship.