"Hamilton, Peter F - The Night's Dawn Trilogy" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Peter F)

УOh, you are going to be a bonny handful, arenТt you?Ф
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She was, but then so were all of her nine siblings as well. The house Athene had taken was a circular one, consisting of a single-storey ring of rooms surrounding a central courtyard. Its walls were polyp, and its curved roof was a single sheet of transparent composite which could be opaqued as required. It had been grown to order by a retired captain two hundred years previously when arches and curves were the fashion, and there wasnТt a flat surface anywhere.
The valley it sat in was typical of RomulusТs interior, with low, rolling sides, lush tropical vegetation, a stream feeding a series of lakes. Small, colourful birds glided through the branches of the old vine-webbed trees, and the air was rich with the scent of the flower cascades. It resembled a wilderness paradise, conjuring up images of the pre-industrial Amazon forests, but like all the Edenist habitats every square centimetre was meticulously planned and maintained.
Syrinx and her brothers and sisters had the run of it as soon as they learnt to toddle. Nothing harmful could happen to children (or anybody else) with the habitat personality watching the entire interior the whole of the time. Athene and Sinon had help, of course, both human nursery workers and the housechimps, monkey-derived bitek servitors. But even so, it was exhausting work.
As she grew up it was obvious that Syrinx had inherited her motherТs auburn hair and slightly oriental jade eyes; from her father she got her height and reach. Neither parent claimed responsibility for her impetuosity. Sinon was terribly careful not to display any public favouritism, though the whole brood soon learnt to their creative advantage that he could never say no or stay cross with his daughter for long.
When she was five years old the whispers in her sleep began. It was Romulus who was responsible for her education, not Oenone. The habitat personality acted as her teacher, directing a steady stream of information into her sleeping brain; the process was interactive, allowing the habitat to quiz her silently and repeat anything which hadnТt been fully assimilated the first time. She learnt about the difference between Edenists and Adamists, those humans who had the affinity gene and those who didnТt, the УoriginalsФ, whose DNA was geneered but not expanded. The flood of knowledge sparked an equally impressive curiosity. Romulus didnТt mind, it had infinite patience with all its half-million strong population.
This difference seems silly to me, she confided to Oenone one night as she lay in her bed. The Adamists could all have affinity if they wanted to. It must be horrible to be so alone in your head. I couldnТt live without you.
If people donТt want to do something, you shouldnТt force them, Oenone replied.
For a moment they shared the vista of the rings. That night Oenone was orbiting high above the dayside of the saffron gas giant planet; it loomed through the misty particle drifts, a two-thirds crescent which always held her entranced. Sometimes she seemed to spend the whole night watching the colossal cloud armies at war.
ItТs still silly of them, she insisted.
One day we will visit Adamist worlds, then weТll understand.
I wish we could go now. I wish you were big enough.
Soon, Syrinx.
For ever.
IТm thirty-five metres broad now. The particles have been thick this month. Just another thirteen years.
Double for ever, the six-year-old replied brokenly.
Edenism was supposed to be a completely egalitarian society. Everybody had a share in its financial, technical, and industrial resources, everybody (thanks to affinity) had a voice in the consensus which was their government. But in all the Saturn habitats the voidhawk captains formed a distinct stratum of their own, fortuneТs favourites. There was no animosity from the other children, neither the habitat personality nor the adults would tolerate that, and animosity couldnТt be hidden with communal affinity. But there was a certain amount of manoeuvring; after all, the captains would one day choose their own crews from the people they could get on with. The inevitable childhood groups which formed did so around the cub captains.
By the time she was eight, Syrinx was the best swimmer out of all her siblings, her long spidery limbs giving her an unbeatable advantage over the others in the water. The group of children she led spent most of their time playing around the streams and lakes of the valley, either swimming or building rafts and canoes. This was around the time they discovered how to fox RomulusТs constant surveillance, misusing affinity to generate loitering phantasms in the sensor cells which covered every exposed polyp surface.
When they were nine years old she challenged her brother Thetis to an evasion race as a way of testing their new-found powers. Both teams of children set off on their precarious rafts, gliding down the stream out of the valley. Syrinx and her juvenile cohorts made it all the way down to the big saltwater reservoir which ringed the base of the southern endcap. That was where their punts became useless in the hundred-metre depth; and so there they drifted in happy conspiracy until the axial light-tube dimmed before responding to the increasingly frantic affinity calls from their parents.
You shouldnТt have done it, Oenone chided solemnly that evening. You didnТt have any life jackets.
But it was fun. And we had a real zing of a ride back in the Hydro Department officerТs boat. It was so fast, there was spray and wind and everything.
IТm going to speak to Romulus about your moral responsibility traits. I donТt think they integrated properly. Athene and Sinon were very worried, you know.
You knew I was all right; so Mother must have known as well.
There is such a thing as propriety.
I know. IТm sorry, really. IТll be nice to Mother and Father tomorrow, promise. She rolled over onto her back, pulling the duvet a little tighter. The ceiling was transparent, and she could just make out the dim silverish moon-glow of the habitatТs light-tube through the clouds. I imagined it was you I was riding on, not just a stupid raft.
Did you?
Yes. There was that unique flash of oneness as their thoughts kissed at every level of consciousness.
YouТre just trying to gain my sympathy, Oenone accused.
Course I am. ThatТs what makes me me. Am I really horrible, do you think?
I think I will be glad when youТre older, and more responsible.
IТm sorry. No more raft rides. Honest. She giggled. It was still heaps of fun, though.
Sinon died when the children were eleven; he was a hundred and sixty-eight. Syrinx cried for days, even though he had done his best to prepare the children. УIТll always remain with you,Ф he told the dejected group when they gathered round his bed. Syrinx and Pomona had picked fresh angel-trumpets from the garden to be put into vases beside the bed. УWe have continuity, us Edenists. IТll be a part of the habitat personality, IТll see what youТre all up to, and we can talk whenever you want. So donТt be sad, and donТt be frightened. Death isnТt something to be afraid of, not for us.Ф And I want to watch you grow up and start your captaincy, he told Syrinx privately. YouТre going to be the best captain ever, Sly-minx, you see. She gave him a tentative smile, and then hugged his frail form, feeling the hot, sweaty skin, and hearing in her mind his inner wince as he shifted his position.
That night she and Oenone listened to his memories as they fled his decaying brain, a bewildering discharge of images and smells and emotional triggers. That was when she first found out about the nagging worry he held about Oenone, the tiny shred of doubt which persisted about the voidhawkТs unusual co-parent. His concern hanging in the darkened bedroom like one of the phantasms she bamboozled the habitat receptor cells with.
See, Sly-minx, I told you IТd never desert you. Not you.
She smiled into the empty air as his distinctive mental tone sounded in her head. Nobody else ever called her that, only Daddy. There was a curious background burble, as if a thousand people were all holding whispered conversations somewhere far behind him.
But the next morning, the sight of his body wrapped in a white shroud being carried out of the house to be buried in the habitatТs arbour was too much for her, and the tears began.
УHow long will he live for in the habitat multiplicity?Ф she asked Athene after the short burial ceremony.
УAs long as he wants,Ф Athene said slowly. She never lied to any of the children, but there were times when she wished she wasnТt so damn noble. УMost people retain their integrity for about a couple of centuries within the multiplicity, then they just gradually blend in to the overall habitat personality. So even then they donТt vanish completely. But at that, itТs a lot better than any heavenly salvation which Adamist religions offer their followers.Ф
Tell me about religion, Syrinx asked the habitat personality later that day. She was sitting at the bottom of the garden, watching fast bronze-coloured fish sliding through the big stone-lined lily pond.
It is an organized form of deity worship, usually originating in primitive cultures. Most religions perceive God as male, because they all have their roots in a time prior to female emancipationЧwhich serves to illustrate how contrived they are.
But people still follow them today?
A majority of Adamists retain their faith, yes. There are several religions current in their culture, notably the Christian and Muslim sects. Both convey the belief that holy prophets walked the Earth at some time in the past, and both promise a form of eternal salvation for those who adhere to the teachings of said prophets.
Oh. Why donТt Edenists believe, then?
Our culture proscribes nothing providing it doesnТt harm the majority. You may, if you wish, practise the worship of any god. The major reason no Edenist chooses this action is that we have extremely stable personalities. We can look at the whole concept of God and spirituality from a vantage point built on logic and physics. Under such an intensive scientific scrutiny, religion always fails. Our knowledge of quantum cosmology is now sufficiently advanced to eliminate the notion of God altogether. The universe is an entirely natural phenomenon, if extraordinarily complex. It was not created by an external act of will.
So we donТt have souls?
The concept of soul is as flawed as that of religion. Pagan priests preyed on peopleТs fear of death by promising them there was an afterlife in which they would be rewarded if they lived a good life. Therefore belief in your soul is also an individual choice. However, as Edenists have continuation through becoming part of a habitat personality, no Edenists have required this particular aspect of faith. Edenists know their existence does not end with physical death. We have, to some extent, superseded religion thanks to the mechanics of our culture.
But what about you? Do you have a soul?
No. My mentality is, after all, the summation of individual Edenists. Nor was I ever one of GodТs creatures. I am entirely artificial.
But youТre alive.