"Tom Purdom-Legacies" - читать интересную книгу автора (Purdom Tom)

"I have a message for you from General Lundstrom, Dorothy. Can I assume you've already been
advised of the news regarding Rinaswandi?"
 "I've just been looking at the report on Trans-Solar, sir. My mentor, Dr. Barian, is on the line with me
now -- listening in."
"General Lundstrom apparently recorded this message only five minutes after she got the news herself.
She wants to know if you still want to discuss the esem procedure with Sergeant Kolin."
Captain Min swallowed. "Does that mean Sergeant Wei is definitely considered a casualty?"
"Are you serious?" Dr. Barian murmured. "I can't believe you could still think anything else, Dorothy."
"I'm afraid that has to be the assumption," Colonel Pao said. "We're still listening for messages from
Rinaswandi, but I don't think anybody's very optimistic."
"Can you advise General Lundstrom I said yes, sir? Tell them I'll need about an hour to prepare a
statement for Sergeant Kolin. The communications time lag between here and the ships is almost eleven
minutes now. There's no way I can engage in a real discussion with him."
"Let me talk to your colonel," Dr. Barian said.
Captain Min stared at him. She started to turn him down and reluctantly decided the combative glint in
his eye was a good indication he would respond with an embarrassing flurry of argument. "Dr. Barian
would like to discuss something with you, Colonel Pao."
"Can you ask him if it's absolutely necessary?"
Captain Min stopped for a moment and switched to the section of her brain cells that contained her
ability to speak in Techno Mandarin. She had been talking to Colonel Pao in Ghurkali -- the official
working language of the Fourth International Brigade. Dr. Barian had picked up a good listening
knowledge of Ghurkali, but she knew he would be more comfortable speaking one of the three
international languages.
"Colonel Pao wants to know if it's absolutely necessary, Dr. Barian."
"At this point I would say it's about as necessary as anything I've ever done."
She raised her eyebrows a fraction of a centimeter, to let Colonel Pao know she was having problems,
and the colonel gave her a nod and answered in the language she had chosen. "Go ahead, Dorothy."
She tapped the buttons that would turn the situation into a full conference call and Dr. Barian started
talking as soon as Colonel Pao's face appeared on the screen.
"Dr. Min has made three attempts to communicate with Deni Wei-Kolin's parents, Colonel Pao. I
assume you've read the reports she's submitted to General Lundstrom."
"I read every word in them before I forwarded them with my approval, Dr. Barian."
"Then I assume you recognize the gravity of the present situation. The ego-strengthening personality
modification is the treatment of choice in situations in which a child is being subjected to the strains Deni
has been absorbing. It's an absolute necessity when one of the parents who has been responsible for
those strains dies prematurely. We are discussing one of the best documented phenomena in the
literature. No child Deni's age can deal with the guilt that is going to begin eating at his sense of self-worth
the moment he hears his mother is dead. His primary reaction to his mother's death will be the creation of
a cluster of unconscious guilt feelings that will distort his entire personality."
Colonel Pao nodded politely. "I'm well aware of that, sir. Captain Min included all that information in
her reports."
"Under normal circumstances," Dr. Barian said, "we could continue with the standard procedure Dr.
Min has been following. Dr. Min would continue counseling the parents three times a week for another
year. Eventually they would acquire some insight into Deni's needs and give her permission to proceed
with the modification procedure. Dr. Min asked for permission to continue the counseling sessions when
the Akara crisis broke out and it was denied her on the ground that it would subject Denis parents to too
much stress at a time when they might be forced to carry out the more violent aspects of their military
duties. She then asked for permission to discuss the situation with them just once, to see if they might
agree to the modification as an emergency procedure. We've now spent two weeks waiting for a reply.
All our efforts to contact Deni's parents have met with bureaucratic delaying tactics. And now that we're