"Jacqueline Lichtenberg - Sime Gen 14 - Easy As Hop, Skip And Jump" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lichtenberg Jacqueline)

"I'm not asking you to break regulations. I'm only pointing out that they don't apply. The risk to
the ship, the crew, the cargo, and even to your life is nothing compared to the whole planet
full of people who'll die if we ..."
"Shhh ... not so loud. I told you this is no place to discuss security matters!"

Knowing that a Sime's hearing matched the Terwhoolins', Welch leaned farther forward into
the gloom to whisper earnestly. "The Pebble Beach has already been modified to spray the
neutralizer from orbit, the stuff is already in her tanks, and it's all there is, anywhere. Except
for astrogator, we've a full crew and we're cleared to space out on the tick of midnight. If we
wait for your TN-1, we'll be too late; the virus will already be killing people, and then the
Affiliated Space Navy will have to take the blame for fatally careless experimentation. And
then where will the dream of the unification of humanity be?
"The ASN is still an experiment itself. If it fails to keep the confidence of all the colonies, we'll
be back to the bickering and 'limited' interstellar wars. And just how long do you expect they
can keep In Brim quarantined without giving a reason? Where's your patriotism? Don't you
want to see humanity united in peace?Y ou're human, too, or so they say."

"Of course I'm human! The Simes are the oldest mutant strain,right from Mother Earth
herself." He couldn't keep a hint of pride out of his voice. "The union I'm concerned with is
more basic, the union between Simes and Gens. On every planet humanity has colonized,
Simes and Gens live together peacefully. If that peace were disrupted, there would be no
question of interstellar peace, there wouldn't even be interstellar commerce because the
Gen crew couldn't trust the Sime astrogator. The strength of the Sime-Gen union is the trust
that we'll never violate our Principles of Action, never infringe safety factors.
"And the most important of our Principles are those regulating transfer denial. You're asking
me to take on an astrogator's responsibility when I'm already four days past the legal limit for
selyn transfer denial."
Klairon frowned, suddenly grave. "Let's face it. Simes are still able to kill Gens for their
selyn, for all that it hasn't happened in hundreds of years. So I'm a channel; so I'm a
veryrarely skilled channel rating a QN-1, so what? A channel is only a Sime with tolerances
and abilities in dealing with Gens that are orders of magnitude greater than ordinary. But I
am subject to mortal limitations. I'm not allowed on a space ship in this condition because
something could happen to push me beyond my endurance; I could kill, but I'd suicide first, if
possible. Then where would you be without an Astrogator?"

Klairon held up his forearms with the six tentacles--two dorsa lto touch the back of the hand,
two ventral to touch the palm,and two lateral, one on each side of the arm--lying sheathed
along each arm. They alone distinguish Sime from Gen. "Take a good look, sir. Do you
notice anything unusual?"

"Nooo ..." Welch surveyed the contours, noting for the thousandth time how the pairs of
dorsal and ventral handling tentacles, though thinner and longer than a finger, were larger
than the delicate laterals, usually unsheathed only in selyn transfer.The laterals were the
sensitive nerves which conducted selyn from Gen to Sime as wire conducts electricity from
higher to lower potential. For all the grace and dexterity of the tentacles, Welch was still glad
his arms were smooth, that he was a Gen, a "Generator"--anormal human. Then his eyes fell
on Klairon's hands ... "but you don't usually wear rings?"
Klairon twisted the plain gold bands about his middle fingers."These are not just rings, sir.
You've never seen me use attenuators before, but now, without the attenuator field around