"1 The Integral Trees" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niven Larry)

Pause. "I'm afraid of falling off. I'd be crazy not to be." There was quiet for a time. Gavving began to notice his own aching muscles and joints. They must be keeping him awake. . . but he was dozing when Alfin spoke again.

"The Chairman knew it."

"Knew what?"

"He knows I'm afraid of falling. That's why the copsik bastard kept sending me under the branch on hunts. Nothing solid under me, trying to hang on and throw a harpoon too . . . I got even, though."

"How?" Glory asked while Gavving thought, So did the Chairman.

"Never mind. Glory, will you lie with me?"

A strained whisper. "No. Alfin, we can't be alone!"

"Did you have a lover, back in the tuft?"

"Most of us didn't. Nobody to protect us when the Chairman thought this up."

A pause, as for thought. "I still can't. Not here."

Alfin's voice rose to a shout. "Clave! Clave, you should have brought a masseuse!"

Clave answered from the darkness. "I brought two."

"Treefodder," Alfin said without heat, perhaps with amusement. Presently there was quiet.


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Chapter Four
Flashers and Fan Fungus

IN THE MORNING THEY HURT. SOME SHOWED IT MORE THAN

others. Alfin tried to move, grunted in pain, curled up with his face buried in his arms. Merril's face was blank and stoic as she flexed her arms, then rose onto her hands. Jayan and Jinny commiserated with each other, massaging each other's pains away. On Jiovan's face, amazement and agony as he tried to move, then a look of betrayal thrown in Clave's direction.

From Glory, wild-eyed panic. Gavving tapped her shoulder blade (and flinched at his own agony-signals). "We all hurt. Can't you tell? What are you worried about? You won't be left behind. Nobody's got the strength."

Her eyes turned sane. She whispered, "I wasn't thinking that. I was thinking I hurt. That's normal, isn't it?"

"Sure. You're not crippled, though."

"Thank you for taking care of me yesterday. I'm really grateful. I'm going to get better at this, I promise."

The Grad spoke without trying to move. "We'll all get better. The higher we get, the less we weigh. Pretty soon we'll be floating."

dave trod carefully among citizens who were awake but not mobile. Gavvmg felt a stab of envy/anger. Clove didn't hurt. From the back of the nose-arm's burrow he selected a slab of smoked. meat ragged with harpoon wounds. "Take your time over breakfast," he instructed them. "Eat. It's the easiest way to carry provisions-"

"And we burned a lot of energy yesterday," the Grad said. He moved like a cripple to join dave and began tearing into a meter's length of what had been the nose-arm's rib. It made sense to Gavving, and he joined them. The meat had an odd, rank flavor. You could get used to it, he thought, if your life depended on it.