"ss - Breath's a Ware That Will Not Keep 1.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Monteleone Thomas F)

She was warm and young and fashionably lean; and he wanted her, too. He always did. She was something of a romantic, since she always used candles to illuminate their lovemaking, but Cipriano didn't mind.

Jennifer helped him attach the electrodes to his forehead; she had already hooked herself into the machine.:? They lay side by side, naked, in the candlelight as the'
machine beneath their bed hummed and touched their pleasure centers. Physiological feedback was encoded from each of them, amplified, and routed into each other as mutual Stimuli. Their orgasms were reached simultaneously with the aid of the machine. Never touching each other, not needing to do so, there was no chance of a nonapproved conception. Afterwards, they lay in silence, smiling from the rush of moist satisfaction. Jennifer arose in the semi-darkness and unhooked the electrodes. Cipriano was asleep before she even turned off the machine.

When he reached his console the next morning, he sensed there was something different about the Eugenic Complex. He hoped that it was merely his imagination. Through the glass, he could see several technicians and a Bioneer working on Feraxya's Tank.

Cipriano placed the psi-helmet on his head and flipped the transmission switch. "I've been expecting you," said Feraxya, instantly crowding his mind; the transmission was almost aggressive.

"What do you mean?" he said quickly.

"When you never came back yesterday, I began to worry about you. Then I felt them fumbling around my Tank. I knew something was wrong."

"I'm sorry," he said. "I was very busy yesterday. I didn't have time to-"

"Don't try to explain. I already know what they're getting ready to do."

"What? What're you talking about. How?" He looked out at the great mass of flesh, seeing it for the first time as something that could be very different from what he had always imagined.

"The night-shift Monitor told me what had happened. I forced him to do it. I wanted to know why they were tampering with me. And when he told me, I was hurt by it. Why couldn't you tell me, Benjamin? I didn't want that other man to tell me, but I had no choice."

"I'm sorry," was all he could manage to say.

"It hurt to know that you had run out of the Complex without telling me, Benjamin."

"Please," he said. "I understand what you're saying. And I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done it."

"Why do they call it a `scrape'?"

"It's just slang, that's all. It doesn't mean anything. They don't do abortions that way anymore."

"Will they be coming soon?" she asked.

"I think so. Don't worry. It won't take long. You won't even feel-"

"No, Benjamin. I don't want them to do it. You've got to tell them not to do it."

Cipriano suppressed a laugh, although it was more from anxiety than from humor. "You don't want it? There isn't anything you can do about it. It's the law, Feraxya! Chicago doesn't allow random births. You know that."

"The only thing I know is that they want to destroy my brood. They want to cut me open and rip them from my flesh. It is wrong," she said slowly.

"There was a mistake in the gene-printing," said Cipriano, trying to explain things in the only way he understood. "Your fetuses aren't perfect constructs."

"But they're human beings, Benjamin. They want to murder them. I can't let them do it."

Cipriano tried to understand her feelings, her reasons for talking such nonsense to him. He began to fear that maybe she was losing control of her senses. "Why are you telling me this?" he asked finally. "You know there isn't anything I can do about it."

"You can tell them not to try. I want to give them a chance."

"They won't listen to me, Feraxya. Barstowe's already scheduled the surgery for this morning. There's nothing you can do but accept what's happening. Face the truth: you're getting an abortion." He regretted the last sentence as soon as he had said it. He could almost feel the pain he was inflicting in her.