"Steve Perry - Battle Surgeons" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Steven)

south. "The front's about seventy kilometers back. The lifters usu-ally come around from the east, because
of the winds."
Jos became aware of Tolk's gaze upon him; she was watching him watch the Jedi. He glanced at her,
and she grinned at him. He grinned back, somewhat sheepishly. No use trying to disguise his thoughts to
herтАФshe was a Lorrdian, and could read anyone's body language like a holo on max-mag. It was almost
like telepathy.
He shrugged. Just idle curiosity, he thought, and saw one of the nurse's eyebrows arch: Oh, really?
He felt a moment of slight embarrassment as he glanced back at Barriss. Since she was a JediтАФwell,
one in training, at leastтАФhad her connection with the Force already alerted her to his taking notice as well?
He had been most impressed by her work in the OTтАФher hands were fast and assured, wielding laser
scalpels and mini pressor fields as she cauterized spurt-ing arteries and even aided in transplanting a kidney.
If she had used any of the healing powers it was rumored that the Force had given her, Jos hadn't seen
itтАФbut then, he'd been rather busy himself.
He knew very little about the ForceтАФnot even how to test for it, because that knowledge was
supposedly re-served for the Jedi. He was aware of the power of the mind-body connection, of course, but
he had no talents in that direction. He was a surgeon; he knew how to slice and splice the innards of a
dozen species, including
his own. That was his talent, his gift, and he was very good at it. So good that at times he felt almost
bored with the routine plumbing repairs he had to make, for the most part, on the clones. He very rarely
lost one, and when he did, due to sepsis or hidden trauma or some other nasty surprise, it was hard to feel
too much grief. Even in wars fought by individuals the doctors of-ten grew numb. It was easier still to do
so when the next body to come under his laser looked exactly like the last one.
They really do all blur together sometimes ...
It had bothered him at first. Now he'd grown used to it. After all, it was common knowledge that clones
weren't true individuals, in the strictest sense of the word. Their mind-set had been standardized, just as
their somatotype had been, in order to make them more effective fighters. No one ever heard of a trooper
freez-ing under fire, or letting his fellows down on the front lines. It just didn't happen, due to subtle
behavioral ad-justments mass-programmed into the amygdala and the other emotional centers of their
brains. Jos wasn't sure, because he'd never had the opportunity to run i tests, but he suspected that their
serotonin and dopamine levels had been adjusted as well, making them more fearless and aggressive. The
bottom line was that one clone was pretty much just like another, and not only in appearance.
Of course, they weren't interchangeable units of a hive mind. Jos had seen evidence of individuation, but
only in areas that didn't interfere with their ability to fight, or their loyalty to the Republic. They were true
universal soldiers, genetically hardwired to fight with-out fear of death or sorrow at the deaths of their
com-rades. It made them more effective warriors, to be sure,
but it also made it hard to think of them as being each a unique organic sentient. He'd often heard them
referred to disparagingly as "meat droids" ... he didn't care for the term, but as a description, it seemed apt.
".. .right, Jos?"
Jos blinked, realizing Zan had asked him something, but he had no idea what it was. He looked up at Zan,
Barriss, and Dhur; they were standing on a small rise coated with the pale pink growth that was Drongar's
idea of grass. A slight breeze had started, but it pro-vided little relief from the heat. The Jedi's cloak was
stirred slightly. It parted momentarily in a gust, and Jos could tell that the body beneath the robes was . ..
Not bad. Not bad at all.
"Hey, partner," Zan said, amused. "How's about dropping out of hyperspace and rejoining the group?"
"Sorry." He moved quickly up the rise to stand beside him, Dhur, and Barriss. "What was the question?"
"I was wondering if that storm was the start of the monsoon season," Dhur said.
"It doesn't start," Jos said, "because it never stops. Except for the poles, the whole planet is like this."
Jos didn't think Dhur's eyes could get any wider, but his last statement proved him wrong. "You mean it's
like this all the time?"
"Pretty much," Zan said.