"Alexei Panshin - Rite Of Passage" - читать интересную книгу автора (Panshin Alexei)

gone, and everybody was a little bit hungry all the time, although nobody was
actually starving. Nobody dared to raise his voice because if he did he might disturb
a hundred other people, and they had laws and ordinances to bring the point homeтАФ
it must have been like being in a library with a stuffy librarian twenty-four hours a
day. And the population continued to rise. There was a limit to how long all this
could go on, and that end was reached one hundred and sixty-four years ago.
IтАЩm lucky, I know, even to be alive at all. My great-great-grandparents were
among those who saw it coming and thatтАЩs the only reason IтАЩm here.
It wasnтАЩt a case of moving elsewhere in the Solar System. Not only was Earth the
only good real estate in the vicinity, but when Earth was destroyed so was every
colony in the system. The first of the Great Ships was finished in 2025. One of the
eight that were in service as well as two more that were uncompleted went up with
everything else in 2041. Between those two years we Ships planted 112 colonies on
planets in as many star systems. (There were 112 at the beginning, but a fair number
simply failed and at least seven acted badly and had to be morally disciplined, so
around ninety still exist.)
 We in the Ships learned our lesson, and though our Ship has only a small, closed
population, we wonтАЩt degenerate. We wonтАЩt become overpopulated, either. We have
a safety valve. Within three months of the day you turn fourteen, they take you from
the ship and drop you on one of the colony planets to survive as best you can for
thirty days. There are no exceptions and a reasonably high percentage of deaths. If
you are stupid, foolish, immature, or simply unlucky, you wonтАЩt live through the
month. If you do come home, you are an adult. My problem was that at twelve I
wasnтАЩt afraid to die, but I was afraid to leave the Ship. I couldnтАЩt even face leaving
the quad we lived in.
We call that month of survival тАЬTrial,тАЭ and I donтАЩt think there was a day from the
time I was eleven that it wasnтАЩt in my thoughts at least once. When I was eleven, a
man named Chatterji had a son due to go on Trial, and he had serious doubts that
the boy would make it. So he went to a great deal of trouble to try to ease the boy
through. He found out where his son was to be dropped and then he coached him
on every danger that he knew the planet had to offer. Then, before the boy left, he
slipped him a whole range of weapons that are not allowed to be carried on Trial,
and he advised him to find a protected spot as soon as he landed and to hole up
there for a month, not stirring at all, thinking the boy might have more of a chance
that way.
The boy still didnтАЩt make it. He wasnтАЩt very bright. I donтАЩt know how he diedтАФ
he may not have been able to cope with one of the dangers he knew was there; he
may have run into something unexpected; he may accidentally have blown his head
off with one of those weapons he wasnтАЩt supposed to have; or he may simply have
tripped over his own feet and broken his neckтАФ but he didnтАЩt live to come home.
And Mr. Chatterji was expelled from the Ship. He may have died, too.
This may sound harshтАФ I canтАЩt judge. It doesnтАЩt really matter whether or not itтАЩs
harsh, because it was necessary and I knew that it was necessary long before I was
even eleven. At the time, however, this made a great impression on me, and if I had
been able to force myself to face things outside the confines of the quad in which I
lived I would have rested much easier.
There may have been other reasons, but I suspect that all this is why when Daddy
became Chairman of the ShipтАЩs Council he decided that we had to move.
Boys and girls, all of us in the Ship grew up playing soccer. IтАЩm sure I knew how
to play by the time I was four or five, and I was certainly kicking the ball around