"Bc05" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niven Larry & Pournelle)

Chaka grinned uncertainly and started over. "I looked at everything Cassandra knows about eels back on Earth," he said. "It isn't really an eel, but it's interesting, eels on Earth go long distances to spawn, and that's what Long Mama was doing, trying to find the headwaters of the Amazon, following instinctive patterns that might be ten or ten thousand generations old."
"Not ten thousand," someone shouted.
Chaka frowned in thought, and Jessica came to join him at the podium. "Probably not ten thousand generations," Jessica said. "I agree, it's likely that anything that carried those genes would have been wiped out by grendels. But we don't know!"
Chaka had found his voice. "A shorter time argues that the grendels came to the island fairly recently," he said.
"And makes our point!" Jessica said in triumph. "It's inevitable, really inevitable, the natural ecology of Camelot will come back now that the grendels are gone. Sorry, Chaka."
He nodded absently. "The natural ecology will come back. Shouldn't we know more about it?"
"Won't be the same." Edgar Sikes's nasal whine came from the audience. "Can't be."
"I know, Edgar. We've seeded the island with Earth species," Chaka said. "When they mix, it'll get interesting. But we'd like to guess what any Avalon life-form will do to us."
"Tell us more about the worm," someone called. An adult voice.
"Carolyn," Sylvia whispered. "She sounds scared."
"I don't blame her," Mary Ann said.
Chaka didn't seem to notice the fear. He spoke eagerly. "We've only had the eel a few days. And she's just one piece of the pattern! We don't know how she interacts with other life, with climate, with grendels for that matter. We don't know what prompted her to swim upstream now, now when so many other Camelot species are changing their habits. We need to know what the mainland ecology is doing. Are things changing there, too?"
"And what eats grendels?" A child's voice from the back of the room. Several older children shushed him.
"Big grendels eat grendels. I've been over there," Joe Sikes said with belligerent pride. "That's your ecology, Chaka. Big grendels, little grendels, grendels that live in snow, water grendels, grendels that build dams, grendels that are dams. Grendels eat grendels, and they deserve each other. There aren't any grendels here, and by God we'll keep it that way, so why do we care how our stupid eel interacts with grendels?"
"That's not fair," Jessica said.
Chaka cleared his throat. He sounded more positive now. "We do have to know, Joe. What you don't know can kill you. If you hadn't known grendels need to cool off . . . ?"
There were murmurs of approval from the tables where the Surf's Up crowd sat. Linda nodded and pulled Joe Sikes back into his seat; and Joe didn't resist. You wouldn't have dumped burning kerosene into the Amazon Creek, Chaka hadn't needed to say, to sear the grendels raging through humanity's last refuge.
"We have to know," Chaka repeated, "and it should be clear there's only one way to find out. We need a full expedition to the mainland. A permanent base there. Not just trips to the highlands, mine inspections. We need a full biological team in place to study the mainland, study it now, before the winds carry Earth species from Camelot to the mainland, because once that happens we'll never know!"
"Now just a minute!" Zack Moskowitz half rose. "If it comes to that, we don't have to know-"
More murmurs. Cadmann frowned in thought.
"Wrong way to talk to the youngsters," Carlos said.
"We do have to know," Chaka said. Jessica nodded vigorous approval as Little Chaka stood to his full height and let his voice rise. "We must study what is there now, we must understand the natural ecosystem, or we will be caught unprepared. For the past twenty years you have ignored this truth, the truth that it is impossible to live on this planet and hide from it at the same time. I say that this is our world, and we don't know enough about it. It's time we learned."
There was loud applause from the Star Born, mostly silence from the First Generation.
"And we'll need all the resources, here and the mainland," Coleen McAndrews said. Her voice was as serious as a fifteen-year-old's can be. "To go back to the stars!"
The audience buzzed like an angry hive. There was no organized back-to-the-stars group, and no real leader, but the issue cut across the generations. No leader yet, Cadmann thought. But when that girl grows up and all that enthusiasm matures we'll have another political fight. Lord, lord, why did we think we left all that behind when we came here?
Zack Moskowitz rose. He took his place at the second podium, across the stage from Chaka. "I think," Zack said, "that an issue as important as this one should be considered as formally as possible. I propose a debate a week from today-"
"No!" Jessica stood, flushing.
"The chair hasn't recognized you, young lady."
"The chair didn't recognize you either, Zack!"
"You know that I am the chairman-"
"Of formal discussions, yes. But this isn't a regular meeting, it's an after-dinner discussion. You can't just run roughshod over it like you do over everything else, Zack. This is too important. Are you declaring an emergency meeting?"
"No-"
"Then wait for Chaka to recognize you."
Zack looked to Cadmann for support. The king appeals to the warrior, but the warrior was ignoring him. Zack stifled his protest. "Very well. I will turn the floor back to Chaka. Chaka? May I be recognized?"
Little Chaka's white teeth gleamed. "Jessica first," he said, "and then you."
Zack smiled sourly.
Jessica took the podium. "The time to decide this is now. We're already taking the Grendel Scouts over, and we've got to send a repair crew as well. It's the right time. Make this the beginning of a permanent base."
"For what?" Zack said.
"For what? To learn about our world," Jessica said. "We need toxological tests, soil tests, we need to know about parasites. The highlands would be perfect for an initial base. That's safe, at least."
She looked as if she had more to say, but had changed her mind about saying it. "Chaka, can we alter this format?"
"Into what form?"
"Informal debate. Allow Zack to take the opposing view, at your podium. We can then field questions and see if we can come to a consensus this evening."
Chaka yielded the floor, and Zack took his place, giving Jessica a grudging nod. "May I?" he asked. She inclined her head.
"May I ask what is the great hurry?" Zack began. "You will shortly visit the mine site. Others will carry out the Grendel Scout rituals. When you've returned we can decide what needs to be done next. Perhaps by then we will know what has gone wrong at the mines. It's probably something natural but surprising. In any event nothing need be done in haste."
"There you go, being reasonable again," someone shouted.
Zack shrugged. "I try to be."
"You wanted to kill the eel," Jessica protested. "That wasn't reasonable!"
Zack nodded. "Yes it was. The eel was unfamiliar, and we have standing rules formulated by our best experts after discussion. The rules aren't perfect, but they're the best judgments we can make."
"And that one is wrong," Jessica insisted.
"Perhaps. This time it appears to have been wrong. But that doesn't mean all the rules, or even that one, are wrong as a general case. We can't foresee everything."