"Nancy Kress - The Flowers of Aulit Prison" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kress Nancy)

explanation that means nothing to me. Too many Terran words, too much strangeness. Pek
Brifjis is no longer talking to me. He is talking to himself, in some sort of pain I don't
understand.
Suddenly the purple eyes snap back to mine. "What all that means, Pek, is that a few of
the healers -- our own healers, from World -- found out how to manipulate the Terran
science. They took it and used it to put into minds memories that did not happen."
 "Not possible!"
"It is possible. The brain is made very excited, with Terran devices, while the false memory
is recited over and over. Then different parts of the brain are made to ... to recirculate
memories and emotions over and over. Like water recirculated through mill races. The water
gets all scrambled together ... No. Think of it this way: different parts of the brain send
signals to each other. The signals are forced to loop together, and every loop makes the
unreal memories stronger. It is apparently in common use on Terra, although tightly
controlled."
Sick brain talks to itself.
"But -- "
"There are no objections possible, Pek. It is real. It happened. It happened to Ori. The
World scientists made her brain remember things that had not happened. Small things, at first.
That worked. When they tried larger memories, something went wrong. It left her like this.
They were still learning; that was five years ago. They got better, much better. Good enough
to experiment on adult subjects who could then be returned to shared reality."
"One can't plant memories like flowers, or uproot them like weeds!"
"These people could. And did."
"But -- why?"
"Because the World healers who did this -- and they were only a few -- saw a different
reality."
"I don't -- "
"They saw the Terrans able to do everything. Make better machines than we can, from
windmills to bicycles. Fly to the stars. Cure disease. Control nature. Many World people are
afraid of Terrans, Pek. And of Fallers and Huhuhubs. Because their reality is superior to ours."
"There is only one comon reality," I said. "The Terrans just know more about it than we do!"
"Perhaps. But Terran knowledge makes people uneasy. And afraid. And jealous."
Jealous. Ano saying to me in the kitchen, with Bata and Cap bright at the window, "I will
too go out tonight to see him! You can't stop me! You're just jealous, a jealous ugly shriveled
thing that not even your lover wants, so you don't wish me to have any -- " And the red flood
swamping my brain, the kitchen knife, the blood --
"Pek?" the healer says. "Pek?"
"I'm ... all right. The jealous healers, they hurt their own people, World people, for revenge
on the Terrans -- that makes no sense!"
"The healers acted with great sorrow. They knew what they were doing to people. But
they needed to perfect the technique of inducing controlled skits-oh-free-nia ... they needed
to do it. To make people angry at Terrans. Angry enough to forget the attractive trade goods
and rise up against the aliens. To cause war. The healers are mistaken, Pek. We have not had
a war on World in a thousand years; our people cannot understand how hard the Terrans
would strike back. But you must understand: the outlaw scientists thought they were doing
the right thing. They thought they were creating anger in order to save World.
"And another thing -- with the help of the government, they were careful not to make any
World man or woman permanently unreal. The adults manipulated into murder were all offered
atonement as informers. The children are all cared for. The mistakes, like Ori, will be allowed
to decay someday, to return to her ancestors. I will see to that myself."