"Keith Laumer - Bolos 9 - Bolo Strike" - читать интересную книгу автора (Laumer Keith)

download their minds to another one. At least, that's the claim.
"We have evidence that the Aetryx also use intelligent beings in their
bioengineering schemes. And that, of course, is one reason the
Confederation has declared war on these monsters."
 The Aetryx protosome faded away, replaced by the image of a
human.
Or was it? It was humanoid, certainly, with human features
emerging from the broad, flat, muscular face. It was nude and male,
though the genitals were missing, along with every bit of hair, right down
to the eyelashes. Like the Warrior, Type One, the being's skin was
leathery and protected in places by bony plates that followed the shape of
the sharp-etched muscles underneath. The horns curling up from the
being's temples added a peculiarly sinister aspect, as did the fangs
protruding from an elongated jaw.
"A Warrior, Type Two," Moberly continued. "Also called a troll. It
appears to have been gene-tailored from human stock."
Streicher heard groans and gasps from others in the virtual
audience.
"Apparently, wherever the Aetryx go as they expand into the galaxy,
they tinker with the genetics of any species they come across. We don't
know the details of how they do this, but it's easy enough to see why. By
altering the gene pool of any given world, they can tailor its population to
their specs, make them tractable, docile, loyal, whatever is necessary.
This makes them extraordinarily dangerous as military opponents.
"Caern was once one of the outlying frontier worlds of the old
Concordiat, far up the Perseus Arm and pretty well off the beaten track
of trade routes and military defense districts," Moberly went on. The
troll's image was replaced by the swollen orb of a planet, a ringed gas
giant, circled by a drifting coterie of moons. One of those moons, large
and cloud-streaked as the camera angle zoomed in for a closer look,
showed the colors of lifeтАФgreens and olives and russet golds, with the
telltale gleam of ocean blue beneath dappling clouds.
"Caern," Moberly continued. "A major moon of Dis, Sallos V. It's
located just outside the traditional habitable zone boundaries, but the
gas giant exacts tidal stresses enough to keep the surface warmed in the
liquid water range. At last census, Caern was home to nearly three
hundred million humans.
"That, however, was five centuries ago. When the Concordiat
collapsed, all contact with Caern was lost. The Aetryx must have arrived
shortly after that, conquered the planet, and enslaved whatever was left
of the human population.
"We know very little about the Aetryxha. We know they have star
travel, but we don't know how large the Aetryx empire is, or even if they
have an empire along the lines of the Confederation. We've had minimal
contact with them so far . . . at Jolhem, at Draelano, and here at Sallos,
and our diplomatic exchanges with them in the first two have been
limited to radio. Intelligence believes they may be slowly expanding
through the Perseus Arm, settling only on worlds that offer them good . .
. building materials. Congenial hosts they can work with, mold to their
specifications. This appears to be the first time humans have run into