"Jacqueline Lichtenberg - Dushau Trilogy 03 - Outreach" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lichtenberg Jacqueline)

Venlagar cupped his arms around the squirming, fretting form in Krinata's embrace. The feel of four
supporting arms calmed the infant even as the Receptor focused on the voracious hunger within.

Krinata kept her own grip firm, having no trouble now concentrating on the baby. Jindigar got the distinct
impression that this was the first time she'd ever held such a young child, and for her, the enhancing
Emulation of motherhood was a journey of self-discovery. For Darllanyu it was no first. Her arms ached
to hold the young thing, and memories fought to claim her attention. //Steady, Dar. I'll make this quick.//

Jindigar let Venlagar's Reception of the infant's incessant hunger flood through them. Her needs, her
burgeoning growth, her striving for life became a part of them. Through the baby's senses her mother's
love and growing fright for her child's life also became a part of them. The pressure of the life force,

binding them all, surged through the open Receptor and possessed the Oliat.

Jindigar signaled Zannesu. //NowтАФto Llistyien.//

Together they reorganized the pattern of energy flows so Llistyien was as wide-open a channel as
Venlagar, and Krinata was again isolated from the full power of Oliat multiawareness. Jindigar stole a
second to reassure Krinata, //Well done!// and Darllanyu: //I'm not trying for precision. It won't be much
longer now.//

Then he caught up the linkages from Zannesu and turned the Oliat out, toward the world of Phanphihy,
seeking the shaleiliu between the Holot hunger and the world's abundance.

It was the simplest of Oliat exercises. Out there, the life forces surged with determination equal to that of
the Holot. The spring had brought renewal to this world, but the Holot were not of a piece with it.
The Oliat subforms, strive as they had throughout the winter, had not brought the offworld settlement into
tune with this ecology. The colonists and Phanphihy had only one thing in commonтАФthe propagation of
new life, the raw enthusiasm for survival, the upsurge of the cycle of renewal.

Reaching for the point of shaleiliu, Jindigar traced that commonality, absorbed now in a Center's task and
momentarily oblivious to the dangers, gratefully accepting one last gratification before Renewal forced
him to reorder his priorities. He surrendered to the infant's hunger and frantic need for the safety of
home, casting about for the fulfillment of that need.

All at once Darllanyu echoed that need, her concentration disrupted by a burst of Renewal hormones.
She lost attunement with Phanphihy, alien and unreal. Reflexively, she raked the Oliat linkages for the one
secure anchor, the wellspring of life, the core energies of Dushaun itself, home. Jindigar, tied to her at
depths beyond fathoming, was swept along, his perceptions shifting. The spring lifetide of Phanphihy akin
to home, but yet alien, became a looming menace.

He could not separate his perception from Darllanyu's.

Through him, her convulsive rejection of this world suffused the Oliat. In a whirl they all lost the
attunement with Phanphihy, the shaleiliu hum deserted them, and the Oliat balance disintegrated.

Fighting panic, Jindigar forced his eyes open but saw only darkness fraught with sinister gleams of dark
red against blackтАФ rocks, vats, beingsтАФalien beings. The Oliat multiawareness brought him insane
fragments of images through his officers' eyes and an overwhelming sense of revulsion.